Jouarre Abbey

This Merovingian foundation was established around 630, by Adon [fr], son of Saint Authaire (Audecharius), inspired by a visit of St. Columbanus.

[3] The Merovingian (pre-Romanesque) crypt beneath the Romanesque abbey church contains a number of burials in sarcophagi, notably that of Theodochilde's brother, Agilbert (died 680), carved with a tableau of the Last Judgment and Christ in Majesty, highlights of pre-Romanesque sculpture.

During the Hundred Years' War, the abbey was ransacked and the nuns forced into exile; but they returned in 1433.

At the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (1572), the abbess Charlotte of Bourbon (1547–1582) converted to Protestantism and escaped from the abbey in a cart of hay, and fled to Germany.

[3] The present monastery buildings, once again occupied by Benedictine nuns, date from the eighteenth century; their traditional vegetable and fruit garden (potager) are notable.

Jouarre Abbey church
Abbaye Notre-Dame Jouarre
Crypt and sarcophagi