Abbey Grace Dieu is located in the municipality of Chaux-lès-Passavant, in Doubs, 30 km east of Besancon.
It was founded in 1139 after Bernard of Clairvaux had convinced the Archbishop of Besançon the need for this implementation.
Located in a wooded valley on the edge of the River Audreux, the abbey is growing rapidly before experiencing some difficulties after the wars between Franche-Comté barons in the fourteenth and the Wars of Religion.
Living from agriculture and the exploitation of its rich forests that supply the metallurgical units in the region, the abbey still manages to resist financial difficulties until the Revolution. The site is then sold, pillaged, and eventually acquired by a master blacksmith.
The area is however bought in 1844 by Trappist that restore some of the buildings, however abandon the blast furnace in favor of a return to logging (mills, sawmills).
Finally, in 1929, the Cistercian nuns regained possession of the abbey and in 2008, workers Missionaries of the Immaculate Family them succeed.
Today, the church has preserved some Romanesque elements of the twelfth century has a neo-Gothic choir (XIX) and is protected as historical monuments, like most other convent buildings or workshops reworked over the centuries (like the cloister, the hotel site, the mill...).
The abbey is open for tours (church yard and certain buildings) or spiritual retreats. by religious manufactured products are sold to home.
Information +33 3 81 60 44 45.
