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Valloires

In 1138 Guy II of Ponthieu agreed with Cistercian monks (from the mother-house of Cîteaux) to the foundation of an abbey on its land. The abbey of Valloires is located in the valley of the Authie River and isolated from surrounding villages. In the following centuries the abbey badly suffered from the battles and pillages which took place in the region (i.e.: the hundred year's war, the thirty years war?). That is why it was totally rebuilt during the XVII and XVIII century. The reconstruction's project followed the architectural codes of the Rule of Saint Benedict but the decoration of the church is realized by an Austrian artist, named Simon Pfaffenhoffen. His tremendous work of baroque style is in total opposition with the will of moderation and simplicity of the Cistercian Order. In 1791 the monks leaves the abbey because of the French revolution, which miraculously did not damaged the building. After World War I a young nurse of the Red Cross, named Ms Therese Papillon turns the abbey into a preventorium in 1922. Today, the association of Valloires perpetuates the social vocation of the place in the many different ways. It runs a home for children with social issues, an institution of therapeutic and pedagogic character and for the elderly, a temporary home.