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Val (Le)

Val (Le) - Abbaye Val (Le) - Abbaye In 1125 a group of monks who came from La Cour Dieu, settled down on the Lands of Mériel in a place called Vieux Moutiers. Concessions acquired on the royal property were confirmed to the chief abbot Thibault and his brothers by King Louis VII, as well as other donations, one being of Ansel de L'Isle. After the Hundred Year's War, the N.D. du Val abbot was commissioned to handle the reformation of Abbeys in the Lyon, Berry, Poitou and Burgundy provinces. In 1507 the Archbishop of Beauvais, Charles de Villiers was the first concessionary abbot of the du Val Abbey. Gilbert Jean de Bellenave, the king chaplain, nicknamed ?the abbot of the racket? had a palm game court built on the premises of the abbey and Henri de Gondi called ?the dissolute regular monk? who died in 1616, was last on the cistercian abbots' list. When establishing the ?Feuillants? in Paris, King Henri III granted them freedom to use the du Val Abbey, but due to the propagator Bernard de Montgaillard called the ?little Feuillant? such plan was upheld until 1630 once the last Cistercian monks had gone. The Feuillants took then possession of the Abbey. It was sold as a State Property and regained its splendour when used as a country home under Régnaud de St Jean d'Angely, who was Napoleon councillor, and where in 1838 the Romantic poet Lefèvre-Deumier wrote ?les vespres de l'abbaye du Val?. Visiting sites : The monks' building and the northern arcades.

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