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Jumièges Abbey # 1

Instead of driving directly from Abbeville to Blonville Sur Mer we made a side trip to visit Jumièges Abbey. I am glad we did it's a remarkable ruin that sits in one of the bends of the River Seine west of Rouen . I particularly liked the delicate towers that reminded me of buildings I have seen it Italy . It has quite a history too.

The abbey was founded in 654 on a gift of forested land belonging to the royal family presented by Clovis II and his queen, Balthild. Under the second abbot, Saint Achard, Jumièges prospered and soon numbered nearly a thousand monks.

In the ninth century it was pillaged and burnt to the ground by the Vikings, but was rebuilt on a grander scale by William Longespee, Duke of Normandy. A new church was consecrated in 1067 in the presence of William the Conqueror.

Enjoying the patronage of the dukes of Normandy, the abbey became a great centre of religion and learning, its schools producing, amongst many other scholars, the national historian, William of Jumièges. It reached the zenith of its fame about the eleventh century, and was regarded as a model for all the monasteries of the province.

The church was enlarged in 1256, and again restored in 1573.

The fortunes of the abbey suffered somewhat through the English invasion of the fifteenth century, but it recovered and maintained its prosperity and high position until the whole province was devastated by the Huguenots during the Wars of Religion.

The French Revolution, ended its existence as a monastery, leaving only impressive ruins. These comprise the church, with its beautiful twin towers and western façade, and portions of the cloisters and library, the contents of which were removed to Rouen when the abbey was dissolved. In the middle of the former cloister, there is still a 500-year-old yew tree.

 

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Uploaded on September 25, 2022
Taken on September 10, 2022