Sylvanès Abbey

Religious Buildings

The history of this rural commune is inseparable from that of its abbey. Founded by the compagnons de Saint Bernard, in a fertile valley with gentle wooded slopes, it was the first Cistercian abbey built in Rouergue in the 12th century. By its simplicity, rigour and quality, this monastic architecture is one of the most important spiritual and artistic monuments in the western world. Despite the tribulations of the 100 Years War the Wars of Religion and the French Revolution, which finally put an end to monastic life, half of the buildings of Sylvanès abbey were preserved: the church itself is a masterpiece of Cistercian art, with its wide nave with chapels sandwiched between interior buttresses, bearing the hallmark of the transitional period between the Romanesque and the local Gothic architecture. It boasts a gallery of vaulted cloisters opening out onto a chapter house with ornate, gemeled windows dating from the 12th century, the former sacristy with its sculpted typanum and, finally, the great hall with its two naves, called the “scriptorium” (13th century).

Sylvanès is an architectural gem, one of the best known of its style in France and by all Romanesque art specialists abroad. Thirty years ago, the abbey was completely restored to its former glory, driven by the association, Amis de l’Abbaye de Sylvanès, and aided by local, regional and national government agencies, as well as private funding. It was well worth preserving. Today, it has become an internationally famous cultural centre…

The abbey offers an eclectic programme of cultural, spiritual and musical events, including an international festival of religious music, a programme of research, training and composition of works related to the Lithurgy and religious arts, singing in all its forms, (songs, choral works, solo recitals, Gregorian chant), theatre, dance, and visual arts (iconography and frescoes). Meetings and seminars are held on cultural themes, and ecumenical dialogues are opened between religions. The abbey is also a site for experimental art education, with classes organised on heritage, culture and art for children and young people.

Sylvanès is a major centre for culture and the arts, and is the only abbey in the region to offer a programme lasting nine months of the year, with such a diverse range of activities, such excellent facilities and in such a glorious natural setting, and amidst such resplendent architecture.

The château de Gissac, a former manor house from the 16th - 19th centuries, has been renovated and converted into a comfortable hotel, thanks to the development of the cultural activities at Sylvanès.