Qualla: Senanque Abbey https://qualla.com/senanque-abbey en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/9/senanque-abbey-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Senanque Abbey https://qualla.com/senanque-abbey Senanque Abbey: Introduction https://qualla.com/senanque-abbey/ Photo credit François de Dijon, CC BY-SA 3.0. The lavender fields that front Senanque Abbey have become one of the most photographed scenes in Provence -- rows of purple blurring into the honey-colored Romanesque stone, the image appearing on so many postcards and calendars that it risks becoming a cliche. But step past the lavender and into the twelfth-century cloister, where paired columns rise to capitals carved into the simplest possible leaf forms, and the austerity hits like cold water. This was always the point. The Cistercians built Senanque not to be beautiful but to be severe, and the beauty crept in despite their intentions.

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Image: François de Dijon | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/9/senanque-abbey-wp/spg9-senanque-abbey-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Senanque Abbey: Monks in a Hidden Valley https://qualla.com/senanque-abbey/ Photo credit Greudin, Public domain. Senanque was founded in 1148 by Cistercian monks from Mazan Abbey in the Ardeche, under the patronage of Alfant, bishop of Cavaillon, and Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Provence. The narrow valley near the village of Gordes in the Vaucluse offered exactly what the Cistercian rule d...

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Image: Greudin | Public domain

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/9/senanque-abbey-wp/spg9-senanque-abbey-monks-in-a-hidden-valley.mp3 0:06 2 full Senanque Abbey: Severity as Design https://qualla.com/senanque-abbey/ Photo credit M.Minderhoud, CC BY-SA 3.0. The structures at Senanque follow the rule of Citeaux Abbey, the mother house of the Cistercian order, with a precision that makes them among the finest surviving examples of Romanesque architecture in France. The abbey church takes the form of a tau cross, with an apse projectin...

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Image: M.Minderhoud | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/9/senanque-abbey-wp/spg9-senanque-abbey-severity-as-design.mp3 0:06 3 full Senanque Abbey: Rise, Ruin, and Return https://qualla.com/senanque-abbey/ Photo credit Chris Down, CC BY 4.0. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Senanque reached its peak, operating four mills and seven granges across large estates in Provence. Decline followed. By 1509, the community had shrunk to about a dozen monks, and the appointment of an abbot in commendam -- a layman dra...

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Image: Chris Down | CC BY 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/9/senanque-abbey-wp/spg9-senanque-abbey-rise-ruin-and-return.mp3 0:06 4 full Senanque Abbey: Lavender, Honey, and Silence https://qualla.com/senanque-abbey/ Photo credit Sébastien Thébault, CC BY-SA 3.0. The story might have ended there, but in 1854 the site was repurchased for a new community of Cistercian monks of the Immaculate Conception. They were expelled again in 1903 and departed to Lerins Abbey on the island of Saint-Honorat near Cannes. A small community returned in 198...

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Image: Sébastien Thébault | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/9/senanque-abbey-wp/spg9-senanque-abbey-lavender-honey-and-silence.mp3 0:06 5 full