Le Thoronet The Abbey of Le Thoronet

Cistercian monks built Le Thoronet in the forests of Provence in the second half of the twelfth century. With Sénanque and Silvacane it is one of the three Cistercian abbeys of Provence. Its church, cloister and chapter house are built of pale stone without ornament, and the church is known for its acoustics.

The last monks left at the Revolution, and the State bought the abbey in 1854. The architect Le Corbusier studied it before he built the Dominican convent of La Tourette, near Lyon.

Raymond Bérenger, count of Barcelona and marquis of Provence, founded the abbey in 1136 for monks from Mazan, in the Vivarais. They settled first at Tourtour, where the abbey was called Florège, and later moved to Le Thoronet. Its best-known abbot was Blessed Fulk, a former troubadour, who became bishop of Toulouse in 1205. The church has a three-bay nave under a pointed barrel vault and an apse flanked by two semicircular chapels. The church has two plain doors for the monks and no central portal. A few capitals near the crossing are marked with a cross, and the windows have plain glass. The chapter house has ribbed vaults, a Gothic feature. In the cloister a small hexagonal lavabo with a dome sheltered the fountain where the monks washed, and the cellar still holds a screw olive press and eighteenth-century wine vats. Prosper Mérimée placed the abbey on the first list of historic monuments in 1840, and the Centre des monuments nationaux runs it today.

No community lives in the abbey. On land next to it, the Bethlehem nuns began the monastery of Notre-Dame du Torrent de Vie in 1978, at the request of Bishop Gilles Barthe of Fréjus and Toulon. Their church, built of unbaked red bricks made by hand from the local soil, was consecrated by Bishop Dominique Rey in 2007. The monastery holds Mass and Vespers every day and asks visitors to telephone to confirm the times.

Further reading: Avignon: A Pilgrim’s Guide to the City of the Popes.

• The churchBare stone, where a single voice carries.
• The cloisterIts heavy arcades, on sloping ground.
• The chapter houseIts ribbed vaults, a Gothic feature in the Romanesque abbey.
• The lavaboA small domed hexagon in the cloister, where the monks washed.
• Notre-Dame du Torrent de VieThe Bethlehem nuns’ monastery next to the abbey, with daily Mass and Vespers.

• Via MagdalenaeThe Magdalene Way, seven daysDay V, Le Thoronet

About fifty minutes by road from Saint-Maximin.

• CotignacNotre-Dame-de-Grâces and Saint Joseph of Bessillon, about 9 miles as the crow flies
• Saint-MaximinThe Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene, about 22 miles as the crow flies
• La Sainte-BaumeThe Grotto of Saint Mary Magdalene, about 29 miles as the crow flies
• SénanqueThe Abbey of Notre-Dame de Sénanque, about 65 miles as the crow flies