Sept-Fons Abbey

The initial generosity of the founders ensured that the building of the church, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of the monastery was soon completed.

They were sent to the abbey of La Trappe, to make their novitiate under Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé, whom Eustache also visited for advice in 1667.

After this, with royal aid, Sept-Fons was rebuilt on a grander scale, and continued in prosperity until the abbey was suppressed in 1791 in the French Revolution.

In 1845, when the Trappists of the Abbaye du Gard were obliged to abandon their monastery, their abbot, Stanislaus, purchased the ruins of Sept-Fons, where he installed his community and rebuilt the church and regular structures.

More recently the community at Sept-Fons has settled a daughter house at Nový Dvůr in the Czech Republic, the first monastic foundation since the fall of the Communist government, and in 2001 commissioned the English minimalist architect John Pawson to undertake the building conversion.