Savigny

location:	Savigny-le-vieux, Manche, France
founded:	1112
daughter of:	Clairvaux (originally Savigniac, admitted to the Cistercian order in 1147)
current status:	ruins
visit:	all year round
pictures taken :	September 2012

The Cistercians were not the only order founded in reaction to perceived Benedictine laxity; a number of other small orders appeared around the turn of the twelfth century, though most were unable to sustain the organisation needed to flourish. Savigny, on the Normandy-Brittany border, was one such: founded in the early 1100s, its initial growth was rapid, and it established 33 daughter houses, many of them in Britain, owing to its proximity to the Northern French coast. However, it was the very fact that these daughter houses were so widespread that caused difficulties of government for the mother house at Savigny. Serlon, the fourth Abbot of Savigny, entered into discussion with Bernard de Clairvaux and the entire order was admitted to the Cistercian order, to whom they felt spiritually close, in 1147.

The Abbaye de Savigny continued to flourish for many years afterwards, and received a number of distinguished guests (Henry II of England met with emissaries of the Pope there, after the assassination of Thomas Becket in 1170). In 1465, King Louis XI granted the abbey royal protection. However, its downfall seems to have begun with its sack by the Calvinists in 1562, and the last twelve monks were expelled in 1789 during the Revolution. Although the inventory of  clergy and churches ordered by the Assemblée Constituante Nationale in 1790 describes the abbey church as “grand, majestic, the sanctuary magnificently decorated with marble of different colours” and containing “great riches”, the building was pillaged, then sold as a quarry. It was said at that time that not a house was built in Savigny-le-vieux or its surrounding towns and villages which did not contain stone from the Abbaye de Savigny.

Today, only two doorways in the cloister and the outline of the abbey church remain.

approach to the abbey, from the west end

doorway on the south side of the cloister

doorway from the abbey church to the cloister

east end of the abbey church

Buildwas

the nave, looking west

location:	Ironbridge, Shropshire, England
founded:	1135
daughter of:	Savigny, admitted to the Cistercian order in 1147
current status:	ruins in the care of English Heritage
visit:	all year round
pictures taken :	July 2011
...

entrance to the chapter house

the chapter house

looking out of the chapter house towards the north side of the church

view from the lay brothers quarters towards the north side of the church

south aisle

Basingwerk

location:	Holywell, Wales
founded:	1131
daughter of:	Buildwas; originally Savigniac, admitted to the Cistercian order in 1147
current status:	ruins in the care of CADW
visit:	all year round
pictures taken :	May 2011
...

view across the cloister towards the Chapter House and South Transept

entrance to the Chapter House

interior wall of the Refectory

looking north west, towards the back of the Chapter House

Jervaulx

location:	East Witton, near Ripon, North Yorkshire
founded:	1145
daughter of:	Byland; originally Savigniac, admitted to the Cistercian order in 1147
current status:	privately owned
visit:	all year round
pictures taken :	July 2010
Founded in Wensleydale in 1145, the monks removed their monastery to East Witton in 1156. At the height of its prosperity, the abbey owned half the valley, and was renowned for breeding horses. It was dissolved in 1537 after the last abbot, Adam Sedbergh, was hanged at Tyburn for his part in the Pilgrimage of Grace. At the time of its dissolution, it was valued at £455.10s5d.

Fontenay

location:	Montbard, Burgundy, France
founded:	1118
daughter of:	Clairvaux
current status:	World Heritage site
visit:	all year round
pictures taken :	July 2011
One of the earliest, and most complete, of the European Cistercian monasteries: only the 13th century refectory is missing, having collapsed in the sixteenth century for lack of upkeep while the abbey was held in commendam. It has been used as a factory and a paper mill in the nineteenth century, then was carefully restored in the twentieth century. It was declared a World Heritage site in 1991. the nave, looking east the chapter house the cloister, looking west from the chapter house cloister monks' dormitory view of the east end of the church and the wing containing the monks' dormitory. The pool in the foreground contained, at the beginning of July, some impressively large tadpoles!

Pontigny

the abbey church, from the north east

location:	Pontigny, Burgundy, France
founded:	1114
daughter of:	Citeaux
current status:	parish church and arts centre
visit:	all year round
pictures taken :	July 2011
The second of Citeaux's great daughter houses, Pontigny rapidly grew and established a further fourteen abbeys, both in France and further afield. The abbey also welcomed a number of influential guests, including three archbishops of Canterbury - Thomas Becket, Stephen Langton and Edmund of Abingdon, who is buried at Pontigny.

the abbey church, from the south west

lay brothers building, now an arts centre

basin from the monks' fountain, located originally in the cloister. The 31 openings
are placed so that a number of monks could wash at the same time.

north aisle, looking east

the abbey church, which now serves as the parish church

capitals in the ambulatory

eighteenth century cloister

Byland

Abbey church, from the south-east corner of the cloister

location:	Byland, North Yorkshire, England
founded:	1135, as Savigniac
daughter of:	Furness
current status:	ruins in the care of English Heritage
visit:	all year
pictures taken :	June 2011
The Byland monks founded their community in Cumberland, and moved sites several times before settling in Byland in 1177; by this time, the Savigniacs had been absorbed into the Cistercian order. The new church at Byland, when first built, was the largest Cistercian church in Britain, and the most highly decorated; the cloister, at 145 feet (44.2m) square, was also one of the largest in the country. The abbey was dissolved in November 1538. steps into the cloister from the nave the chapter house steps into the library and vestry from the south transept remains of the south transept, seen through the west door the nave, looking east west end, from the corner of the north transept tiled floor in the south transept view of the west end, though the window of the south transept