Abbaye de Frontfroide

A wonderful drive up towards Narbonne to this wonderful Abbaye.

Some history:
Founded in 1093 by Benedictine monks, Fontfroide is linked in 1145 to the Order of Citeaux and quickly became one of the most powerful Cistercian abbeys of Christendom.  The abbey is located in the heart of the Massif de Fontfroide consisting of 4000 hectares of untouched nature.  Bathed by the brook Fontfroide, this sumptuous Cistercian ensemble of the 12th and 13th century. is nestled in the heart of a typically Mediterranean landscape. During the Crusade against the Albigensians, it became a bastion of Catholic Orthodoxy against Catharism. 


Our interest was not just the architecture, which is stunning, but that in 1908 Gustave Fayet bought it, restored it and embellished it with wonderful terraced gardens on the hills.


Fayet was a painter and collector, who was closely associated with many of the artists who spent time in the Languedoc Region in the early 20th Century, and the Abbaye, still owned by the Fayet family, has a room with a number of his paintings and some of those he collected of other paintings.  

Sadly on the day we visited it was closed!  A good excuse for another visit!