Valmagne Abbey

Valmagne Abbey was founded in 1138 by Raymond Trencavel, Vicomte de Béziers, with monks from the Benedictine monastery of Sainte-Marie d'Ardorel near Albi.

Valmagne then experienced a time of rapid growth as local landowners bestowed both land and money on the monastery.

During the French Wars of Religion of the sixteenth century, the abbey was almost abandoned and in 1575, an attack by Huguenots broke all the windows of the church and caused considerable damage to other buildings, particularly the cloister.

At the same time the cloister was repaired, but the abbey had fallen into debt and lacked the finance to restore the structures properly, hence many windows in the church were bricked up instead of being re-glazed.

By the eighteenth century, the community was very small and during the French Revolution the abbey was sacked again and furniture, paintings and archives were burned.

There are two distinct terroirs within the domain; the first, of clay and chalk, contains the AOC classified area and produces mainly white wines, whilst the second, to the north, is red sandstone and marl.