Chartreuse pontificale du Val-de-Benediction
Huddled at the foot of Fort Saint-André, the timeless and peacefull haven of the Chartreuse pontificale de Val-de-Bénédiction is hidden from view behind its walls. Concealed in the midst of Villeneuve, its discretion attests to the priest's desire to retire "to the desert", far from the sound and fury of the world. This composure almost mkes one forget theconsiderable dimensions of the largest and richest in Europe.
In 1973 it became a cultural center and houses the Centre National des Ecritures du Spectacle. From copyist monks to authors in residence, writing remains the main current in the range of activities now available here to dramatic authors.
Four centuries of Transformation
In 1352 the palace of Cardinal Etienne Aubert (his livrée cardinalice) was merely the residence of an important Churchman, a site inhabited by faith. A year later, the proprietor became the Sovereign Pontiff under the name of Innocent VI, and he bestowed the buildings on the Carthusian order.
The birth of a charterhouse, 1353-1360.
It took only three years to convert the cardinal's palace into a monastery. The structures gave themselves over to this easily enough. At the center was the church with its apse and three bays. Nearby, a dozen monk's dwellings were constructed, delimiting the cloister and the cemetry. Between the former livrée, the church and the cloister of the cemetry, a smaller cloister with cypresses and boxwood was created, with the chapterhouse at its back. Facilities necessary for community life were added, such as a laundry (locally called the bugade instead of the usual buanderie) and a bakery. High walls surround the ensemble. The church was consecrated on August 19, 1358, symbolically marking the achievement of the initial project. The work was financed by the pope's personal treasury.
Expansion of the monastery, 1360-1649
Only two years after its foundation the monastery underwent works of expansion and decoration. Innocent VI decided that he was to be buried at the Charterhouse. Thus, a chapel to house his tomb was added to the church. But the following year was a somber one for Avignon.
In 1361, the plague ravaged the city, and the victims numbered in the thousands. Innovent VI was spared. It is said that he thanked he Virgin for this by giving the Chartreuse the name Notre-Dame du Val-de-Bénédiction. He continued to provide for the site. When Innocent VI died in 1362 the monastery lost its protector, but his nephew, Cardinal Pierre Selva de Montirac continued to endow it, earning the epithet of second founder. In 1372 the number of priests doubled to 24, thanks to generosity of his gifts.
New cells thus had to be constructed. These were grouped around a new cloister, the Saint-Jean or upper cloister, built c.1372. The church also needed to be enlarged. A new bay, flanked with the Saint-Bruno and Saint-Michel chapels, was created. The brothers gathered in this new construction, while the old part of the church was reserved for the priests.
Pierre Selva de Montirac was not only generous scion of the Aubert family. Cardinal Audouin Aubert, Bishop of Ostie, and Cardinal Estienne Aubert, Bishop of Carcassone, also enthusiastically continued Pope Innocent VI's work, leaving large sums of money and reconstructing part of the site that was destroyed by fire. The extent to which the destinity of the Charterhouse is linked to this family is apparent. The generosity of the Auberts assured the community's accretion.
Other great local families followed the Aubert's example and donated land and buildings to the Charterhouse. It was thanks to these revenues that the monastery could both maintain its charitable works and commission the fine art works that kined its walls. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Chartreuse's estave was considerable. Its lands extended not only around the monastery (e.g., Avignon, Rhenish islands of the Rhône, Pujaut, Aramon, Sorgues), but also into the Comtat Venaissin and Pont-Saint-Esprit, where it possessed priories. It influence was extensive. It trained novices, instructed illustious men of the frock and scholars, and aided the poor in times of famine, plague and flood.
The Golden age of the Charterhouse, 1649-1793
The Charterhouse reached its apogee in this period, and it was the wealthiest in France. It housed nearly 150 people, forty of whom were priests and thirty of whom were lay brothers, with an equal number of servants and workers. The community's wealth was discernable in the gold, marble, tableauw and sculpture that lined its walls. A monumental portal had been planned, abandoned, and then achieved in 1649. Its Baroque luxuriance reflected the taste of the time. Louis XIV and his large entourage entered the Charterhouse through this portal in 1660.
At the turn of the eighteenth century, besides the chapel for the dead that was soon built in the cemetry's cloister, mainly non-explicitly religious building were added, i.e.; barns, a guest houses, wood storage, a hospital, a servants'kitchen and a new dome over the Saint-Jean fountain. But if only prosperity and serenity reigned inside the walls, the site could not avoid the French Revolution. Three dates suffice to describe the collapse of this world : February 14, 1790, the suppression of religious orders; November-December 1792, departure of the monks ; May 17, 1793, sale of themonastery.
Revolutionary times to the present day
Thus began the long night of the Charterhouse. The building was transformed into a stone quarry and barns, and deteriorated with the two hundred-odd families who come to inhabit it. In his Notes from a Voyage to the South of France, Prosper Mérimée describes his consternation upon discovering the state of Innocent VI's tomb : "September 11, 1834. Today I went to Villeneuve to visit the Gothic tomb of Innocent VI. The Charterhouse where it is enclosed was sold in parts during the Revolution.
The tomb, included in one of the lots, can be seen amidst a winegrower's hovel. Barrels, olive trunks and enormous ladders are piled up pell-mell in this little cubbyhole with the mausoleum.
It can't understant how all the little pinnacles, the light and elegant leafwork have survived the tossing avout of all these objects. There is nothing more delicate, more graceful, more rich than this stone canopy. A great number of alabaster statues used to ornament the base. These were sold off, one by one. And the owner of this hovel smashed in the base for storage ! While htis magnificent monument has been ceaselessly mistreated, it is still one of the most beautiful examples of fourteenth-century Gothic ornamentation".
It was another three quarters of century before this cry was answered. In 1909, the architect Jules Formigé submitted his Rapport sur la Chartreuse de Villeneuve-lez-Avignon, to the Commission des Monuments Historiques. It is a scrupulous and well documented call for action. The state initiated its three-part action, Buy-Restore-Rehabilitate, which also took another seventy-five years. Parcel by parcel, the land and the buildings were bought up from the approximately three hundred owners who occupied them. Restoration was undertaken and continues.
Exemplary Restoration Sites
It was decided that the belfry would be restored to a fourteenth-century state, while evidence of changes would remain for the Saint-Jean cloister. It various transformations and uses, including its incarnation as a village square during the Revolutionary period, would be exposed. Time and the Revolution have altered La Valfenière's monumental portal. Given the volume of the tymphanum and the scultural subject-matter suggested by a miniature iconography, restorers created sculptures in the manner of Nicolas Mignard, taking their cues from an existing Virgin and Child. Innocent VI's features were copied from those of the recumbent statue on his tomb.
Armed with thes clues and advanced restoration techniques, the sculptors have endeavored to get as close as possible to a plausible restitution.
The Chartreuse, Cutural center
In 1973, local authorities and the Caisse Nationale des Monuments Historiques et des Sites established the Chartreuse as a cultural center. The Tinel was restored and transformed under this cultural mandate. This building was originally the official reception of the cardinal's palace. It became the priest'refectory during the Chartreuse days, and is the ensemble's second largest building (after the church). Today it is used as a performance space that can seat four hundred.
The building has begun its new life as an innovative tourist site and as a fascinating new residency center, somewhat on the model of France's Villa Médicis in Rome. The rigorous reconstruction of the site, including its open-air spaces, makes it an ideal location for collective and individual projects, meditation and creative pursuits. It remains linked with Avignon, its festival, and its position as an international center for theater arts.
It has been a receptive international center for research, creative activity and events since the 1970s. In 1991 La Chartreuse became the Centre National des Ecritures du Spectacle, offering residencies for research and creative projects.
The writers'residencies are the focal point for a range of activities that aim to support and promote contemporary dramatic writing. A highlight of the Festival d'Avignon is the Rencontres d'Eté de la Chartreuse, when a large public can encounter contemporary theater.
In 1973 it became a cultural center and houses the Centre National des Ecritures du Spectacle. From copyist monks to authors in residence, writing remains the main current in the range of activities now available here to dramatic authors.
Four centuries of Transformation
In 1352 the palace of Cardinal Etienne Aubert (his livrée cardinalice) was merely the residence of an important Churchman, a site inhabited by faith. A year later, the proprietor became the Sovereign Pontiff under the name of Innocent VI, and he bestowed the buildings on the Carthusian order.
The birth of a charterhouse, 1353-1360.
It took only three years to convert the cardinal's palace into a monastery. The structures gave themselves over to this easily enough. At the center was the church with its apse and three bays. Nearby, a dozen monk's dwellings were constructed, delimiting the cloister and the cemetry. Between the former livrée, the church and the cloister of the cemetry, a smaller cloister with cypresses and boxwood was created, with the chapterhouse at its back. Facilities necessary for community life were added, such as a laundry (locally called the bugade instead of the usual buanderie) and a bakery. High walls surround the ensemble. The church was consecrated on August 19, 1358, symbolically marking the achievement of the initial project. The work was financed by the pope's personal treasury.
Expansion of the monastery, 1360-1649
Only two years after its foundation the monastery underwent works of expansion and decoration. Innocent VI decided that he was to be buried at the Charterhouse. Thus, a chapel to house his tomb was added to the church. But the following year was a somber one for Avignon.
In 1361, the plague ravaged the city, and the victims numbered in the thousands. Innovent VI was spared. It is said that he thanked he Virgin for this by giving the Chartreuse the name Notre-Dame du Val-de-Bénédiction. He continued to provide for the site. When Innocent VI died in 1362 the monastery lost its protector, but his nephew, Cardinal Pierre Selva de Montirac continued to endow it, earning the epithet of second founder. In 1372 the number of priests doubled to 24, thanks to generosity of his gifts.
New cells thus had to be constructed. These were grouped around a new cloister, the Saint-Jean or upper cloister, built c.1372. The church also needed to be enlarged. A new bay, flanked with the Saint-Bruno and Saint-Michel chapels, was created. The brothers gathered in this new construction, while the old part of the church was reserved for the priests.
Pierre Selva de Montirac was not only generous scion of the Aubert family. Cardinal Audouin Aubert, Bishop of Ostie, and Cardinal Estienne Aubert, Bishop of Carcassone, also enthusiastically continued Pope Innocent VI's work, leaving large sums of money and reconstructing part of the site that was destroyed by fire. The extent to which the destinity of the Charterhouse is linked to this family is apparent. The generosity of the Auberts assured the community's accretion.
Other great local families followed the Aubert's example and donated land and buildings to the Charterhouse. It was thanks to these revenues that the monastery could both maintain its charitable works and commission the fine art works that kined its walls. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Chartreuse's estave was considerable. Its lands extended not only around the monastery (e.g., Avignon, Rhenish islands of the Rhône, Pujaut, Aramon, Sorgues), but also into the Comtat Venaissin and Pont-Saint-Esprit, where it possessed priories. It influence was extensive. It trained novices, instructed illustious men of the frock and scholars, and aided the poor in times of famine, plague and flood.
The Golden age of the Charterhouse, 1649-1793
The Charterhouse reached its apogee in this period, and it was the wealthiest in France. It housed nearly 150 people, forty of whom were priests and thirty of whom were lay brothers, with an equal number of servants and workers. The community's wealth was discernable in the gold, marble, tableauw and sculpture that lined its walls. A monumental portal had been planned, abandoned, and then achieved in 1649. Its Baroque luxuriance reflected the taste of the time. Louis XIV and his large entourage entered the Charterhouse through this portal in 1660.
At the turn of the eighteenth century, besides the chapel for the dead that was soon built in the cemetry's cloister, mainly non-explicitly religious building were added, i.e.; barns, a guest houses, wood storage, a hospital, a servants'kitchen and a new dome over the Saint-Jean fountain. But if only prosperity and serenity reigned inside the walls, the site could not avoid the French Revolution. Three dates suffice to describe the collapse of this world : February 14, 1790, the suppression of religious orders; November-December 1792, departure of the monks ; May 17, 1793, sale of themonastery.
Revolutionary times to the present day
Thus began the long night of the Charterhouse. The building was transformed into a stone quarry and barns, and deteriorated with the two hundred-odd families who come to inhabit it. In his Notes from a Voyage to the South of France, Prosper Mérimée describes his consternation upon discovering the state of Innocent VI's tomb : "September 11, 1834. Today I went to Villeneuve to visit the Gothic tomb of Innocent VI. The Charterhouse where it is enclosed was sold in parts during the Revolution.
The tomb, included in one of the lots, can be seen amidst a winegrower's hovel. Barrels, olive trunks and enormous ladders are piled up pell-mell in this little cubbyhole with the mausoleum.
It can't understant how all the little pinnacles, the light and elegant leafwork have survived the tossing avout of all these objects. There is nothing more delicate, more graceful, more rich than this stone canopy. A great number of alabaster statues used to ornament the base. These were sold off, one by one. And the owner of this hovel smashed in the base for storage ! While htis magnificent monument has been ceaselessly mistreated, it is still one of the most beautiful examples of fourteenth-century Gothic ornamentation".
It was another three quarters of century before this cry was answered. In 1909, the architect Jules Formigé submitted his Rapport sur la Chartreuse de Villeneuve-lez-Avignon, to the Commission des Monuments Historiques. It is a scrupulous and well documented call for action. The state initiated its three-part action, Buy-Restore-Rehabilitate, which also took another seventy-five years. Parcel by parcel, the land and the buildings were bought up from the approximately three hundred owners who occupied them. Restoration was undertaken and continues.
Exemplary Restoration Sites
It was decided that the belfry would be restored to a fourteenth-century state, while evidence of changes would remain for the Saint-Jean cloister. It various transformations and uses, including its incarnation as a village square during the Revolutionary period, would be exposed. Time and the Revolution have altered La Valfenière's monumental portal. Given the volume of the tymphanum and the scultural subject-matter suggested by a miniature iconography, restorers created sculptures in the manner of Nicolas Mignard, taking their cues from an existing Virgin and Child. Innocent VI's features were copied from those of the recumbent statue on his tomb.
Armed with thes clues and advanced restoration techniques, the sculptors have endeavored to get as close as possible to a plausible restitution.
The Chartreuse, Cutural center
In 1973, local authorities and the Caisse Nationale des Monuments Historiques et des Sites established the Chartreuse as a cultural center. The Tinel was restored and transformed under this cultural mandate. This building was originally the official reception of the cardinal's palace. It became the priest'refectory during the Chartreuse days, and is the ensemble's second largest building (after the church). Today it is used as a performance space that can seat four hundred.
The building has begun its new life as an innovative tourist site and as a fascinating new residency center, somewhat on the model of France's Villa Médicis in Rome. The rigorous reconstruction of the site, including its open-air spaces, makes it an ideal location for collective and individual projects, meditation and creative pursuits. It remains linked with Avignon, its festival, and its position as an international center for theater arts.
It has been a receptive international center for research, creative activity and events since the 1970s. In 1991 La Chartreuse became the Centre National des Ecritures du Spectacle, offering residencies for research and creative projects.
The writers'residencies are the focal point for a range of activities that aim to support and promote contemporary dramatic writing. A highlight of the Festival d'Avignon is the Rencontres d'Eté de la Chartreuse, when a large public can encounter contemporary theater.
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