Clairvaux Abbey (/klɛərˈvoʊ/, French: [klɛʁvo]; Latin: Clara Vallis) was a Cistercian monastery in Ville-sous-la-Ferté, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Bar-sur-Aube.

[8] Clairvaux continued to attract promising monks; one of them became a pope (Eugene III), twelve became cardinals, and over thirty were elevated to the episcopacy.

[10] In the 13th century, Clairvaux Abbot Stephen Lexington founded the Cistercian college at the University of Paris and it remained under the abbey's responsibility for generations.

[4] In the early modern period, Clairvaux was the origen of the movement toward stricter observance, particularly under Abbot Denis Largentier.

[4] Starting in 1708, comprehensive reconstruction of the abbey's buildings in the classical style began, dubbed Clairvaux III by historians.

[12] At the time of the French Revolution in 1789, Clairvaux had only 26 professed religious, counting the abbot, Louis-Marie Rocourt, ten lay brothers, and ten affiliated pensioners of the house; 19 of the religious and all the lay brothers were secularized.

Deplorable conditions at the abbey inspired Victor Hugo to write his short story "Claude Gueux", based on a real prisoner at Clairvaux, in 1834.

[12] The abbey was in 1926 as a historical monument by the French Ministry of Culture, but only one of the buildings, the one for the lay brothers, is medieval in origin yet erected after Bernard had died.