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Rieunette

This abbey, which dates back to 1162, was established at Rieunette in the diocese of Carcassonne. It is said to be one of the first twenty abbeys founded by the Cistercian nuns of Le Tart*. Placed under the protection of the Villelongue abbots, the abbey remained prosperous for more than two hundred years, with its approximately thirty choir nuns. In 1528, during the Wars of Religion, the abbey was deserted by the nuns and then looted and set fire to. In 1648, Cécile de Noé was appointed Abbess of Rieunette and she tried to restore the life of the nuns in the community. However, the buildings were destroyed once again in 1654 by those who were refusing to return what had been looted eighty years before. After settling in the City of Carcassonne, the community declined little by little up to 1761, when the local bishop closed the abbey. A few centuries elapsed till 1998, when a new community of Cistercian nuns from the Abbey of Sainte Marie de Boulaur (in the French départment of the Gers) brought the ancient abbey back to life after rebuilding the cloisters and the community premises.