Ancienne abbaye de la Bourdillière
AbbeyHidden Treasure
Nestling in Touraine, the former Cistercian abbey of La Bourdillière is a blend of 15th-century seigneurial dwelling and 17th-century Baroque convent, with its cylindrical tower and unusually elegant stone screw.
© Wikimedia Commons
History
Hidden away in the Touraine bocage, a few leagues from Loches, the former abbey of La Bourdillière is one of those monuments that you discover with the surprise of an attentive traveller. Far from the beaten tourist track, it embodies a remarkably coherent architectural and spiritual synthesis: the medieval seigniorial dwelling, remodelled during the Renaissance, stands side by side with the austere monastic buildings erected during the Grand Siècle, forming an ensemble of almost palpable serenity. What makes La Bourdillière truly unique is its dual nature. On the one hand, the remains of a mellowed-out fortified castle - trapezoidal plan, moat, cylindrical tower at the north-west corner - betray the defensive ambitions of the medieval lords. On the other, the polygonal tower pierced by an elegant stone screw and the large nuns' dwelling bear witness to a spiritual conversion carried out with care and taste by Louis de Menon in the twilight years of the 17th century. The visit is an intimate and contemplative experience. The complex of buildings, now in private ownership, can be seen from the outskirts with sufficient clarity to grasp its volumetric composition: the silhouette of the round tower emerging above the foliage, the rhythm of the facades, the Cistercian sobriety of the conventual building. Lovers of the Loire's civil and religious architecture will find much to compare with the great abbeys of the region. The natural setting amplifies the impression of contemplation. The dry moats, the surrounding farmland and the silence of the Indre-et-Loire bocage create a picture that invites meditation as much as historical study. It's a monument for the discerning visitor, with a taste for authenticity and little interest in crowds.
Architecture
The architectural ensemble of La Bourdillière can be read as a palimpsest of two major construction phases. The seigneurial dwelling, whose origins date back to the 15th century, has a trapezoidal floor plan typical of noble residences in medieval Touraine. Its silhouette is dominated by a cylindrical tower in the north-west corner, a defensive element inherited from late Gothic architectural codes. The polygonal tower on the south facade is the centrepiece of the interior circulation system: it houses a stone spiral staircase carved out of the local tufa stone, the formal elegance of which bears witness to the refined attention paid to the transitions between floors, typical of the Renaissance vocabulary of the Loire Valley. The moat that once surrounded the château, now filled in or drained, underlines the site's former defensive role. The nuns' building, erected in the 17th century at the time of the Cistercian foundation, expresses an entirely different aesthetic. Sober, rectilinear and ordered according to the principles of regularity so dear to Counter-Reformation conventual architecture, this large main building is distinguished by its length and its sparse ornamentation, in keeping with the Bernardin spirit, which banned all superfluous luxury. The materials used - probably Touraine tufa stone for the frames and local limestone for the masonry - give the building a warm, luminous chromatic unity that is characteristic of the built heritage of Indre-et-Loire.
Related Figures
Louis de Menon — seigneur de la Bourdillière, fondateur du couvent cistercien en 1662 après être entré dans les ordres à la mort de son épouseLes premières religieuses de la famille de Menon — pionnières du couvent, qui lui donnèrent son caractère aristocratique et dynastiqueL'archevêque de Tours — auteur de l'ordonnance de suppression de l'abbaye en 1770, dans le cadre de la politique gallicane de rationalisation des maisons religieusesLes seigneurs médiévaux de la Bourdillière — bâtisseurs anonymes du logis du XVe siècle, vassaux de la châtellenie de Loches
