Notre-Dame de Bonneval abbey is located in the town of Cayrol, Aveyron, 40 km north-east of Rodez.
It was founded in the heart of a green valley but isolated in 1147 at the initiative of the bishop of Cahors, and was part of the Cistercian order. It quickly becomes prosperous thanks to a dozen barns (farms held by monks) established throughout Rouergue and Quercy.
On the religious level, the abbey is also renowned for the quality of its teaching and it serves as a novitiate for all Cistercian abbeys from the southeastern quarter of France until the Revolution.
However, if the abbey had resisted previous troubles (Hundred Years War, Wars of Religion), the Revolution struck him severely: the monks are hunted and the buildings sold and exploited as stone quarries.
However, the oldest elements of the site have been partially preserved because built in shale, a material considered less noble and less profitable commercially. Part of the primitive abbey is still visible (elements of the church, the entrance pavilion, the walls of the fourteenth century that protected the monks during the wars).
Substantial reconstruction work began in the 19th century.
Today, the abbey is home to a community of Cistercian-Trappist nuns dedicated to prayer and chocolate production.
Part of the abbey is open to the public who can discover the entrance to the monastery dating from the twelfth century, the church (the offices are open), a store where is projected a film evoking the history of the abbey and presenting the manufacture of chocolate. It is also possible to walk on the ramparts.
Spiritual retreats are offered conditionally.
Information on +33 5 65 44 24 49.
