Lencloître - Notre-Dame

Robert of Arbrissel (aka "Robert d'Arbrissel") was a restless itinerant preacher and is still well remembered as the founder of the famous Abbey of Fontevrault. In 1106 he founded a priory here, dependend from the Abbey of Fontevrault. Nuns and patres lived together in one community, just like in Fontevrault. The priory must have had a nice cloister, as Lencloître, the name of the village, derives from the word
cloître".

Like most monasteries around, the priory got looted and burnt down during the Wars of Religions, but monastic life continued upto the French Revolution, when the last nuns left - and the remaining buildings were sold as national property.

The church of the priory survived the times and since 1805 serves as a parish church. The interior has some great carvings. The preparations for the ceremony were underway, watched by this strange hybrid creature on the capital.