From Cistercian Europe, Architecture of Contemplation, Terryl N. Kinder, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002.
Excerpts chosen by Thomas Falmagne.

The Sitting of Cistercian Monasteries

Cistercian monasteries are frequently located in valleys. In order to transform many sites into prosperous and fertile properties for which they became known, the Cistercians drained and reclaimed land, built dams, dug canals, deviated flooding, moved the river course, or created whatever innovative solution was necessary to make the site habitable and hospitable.

Rivers have always served as political boundaries, as a map of the world from any period will demonstrate. The rivers running near many of the early abbeys were often political and/or ecclesiastical boundaries.

The donation to the Cistercians of a river site on a politically delicate border, though it may have been described in charters or later stories as an act with laudably pious motives, could also have been a politically and economically astute maneuver. What had previously been wasteland was frequently transformed into a fertile and productive settlement, becoming in addition, at least in the beginning, a buffer zone against potential conflict.

(To be continued, the remaining text will be translated shortly)