The former abbey of Sainte-Enimie is located in the territory of the eponymous village, built from 2017 to the new common "Gorges du Tarn Causses" in Lozère, 27 km south of Mende.
It was founded in the tenth century on the site of a former priory established, according to legend, in the seventh century by Énimie, daughter of the Frankish king Clotaire II, saying he had been cured of leprosy after having bathed in the source Burle, in the village. Exist therefore two monasteries, one for women and one for men, which are destroyed between the eighth and tenth centuries during invasions.
In 951, the bishop of Mende asks the Benedictine Abbey of St. Chaffre-en-Velay and gives them the male monastery to restore it.
This was done: Abbey wins over the centuries recognition and prosperity alongside their religious dynamism, the monks make St. Énimie a commercial stronghold.
The abbey is however largely destroyed during the Revolution. The site even become a career. Do remain to this day as the Sainte-Madeleine chapel, the remains of the fortifications and the monks' refectory, called "chapter house". This room is open to visitors in July and August.
The site, protected as historical monuments, built on a plateau where the remains form a rectangle, however, is all the year a place of interest (we particularly admire the ornate capitals remains) to be discovered during a step in this locality member of the Association of the most beautiful villages of France.
Information +33 4 66 45 01 14.
