Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Bourgueil-en-Vallée

The abbey of Bourgueil, specifically the abbey of Saint-Pierre de Bourgueil-en-Vallée, is a Benedictine abbey, which adopts the rule of St. Maur in 1630. It is located at Bourgueil, formerly Burgolium in the country of Bourgueillois depending before the 1790 election of Saumur, Chinon the royal seat of the diocese of Angers, and so history of Anjou. But nowadays Bourgueil is in Indre-et-Loire. This important abbey founded in 990 by Emma, ​​Countess of Blois, daughter of Thibaud the Trickster, Duchess of Aquitaine.

Very quickly, the twelfth century to the eighteenth century, the abbey under his control 42 priories and 64 parishes in the Isle of Angoumois in France. One of the priests, Father Baudry of Bourgueil praises his poetry with the wine that the monks help to develop in the region ... It is also famous for its extensive gardens sung by Ronsard. François Rabelais wants to give his monk Bourgueil Abbey, where monks develop the culture of the vine and improves the quality of grapes. It becomes a barony under the king. Many noble families or not, come in Bourgueillois to perform duties related to the presence of the abbey. Even kings and future kings, queens stay in the abbey of Saint-Pierre-en-Vallée Bourgueil and there are important decisions. In 1156, Henry II there is the general condition of its provinces. In 1208, Pope Innocent III took the abbey under his direct protection. Ravaged by the Great Companies and the English during the Hundred Years War, partly destroyed by the Huguenots, wanting to avenge the crimes of one of its abbots, St. Peter is repeatedly during the 801 years of its existence, partly reconstructed, extended, restored ... In the sixteenth century, it is put in order. At the Revolution the National Assembly, with the church property, hunting in 1791 the monks. The abbey of Bourgueil is ruined by the ensuing destruction, but there is still another three groups of buildings dating from before 1789.