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| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Other names | Abbaye Royale d'Hautecombe Abbazia Reale di Altacomba |
| Order | Benedictine |
| Established | c. 1101 |
| Disestablished | 1790–1826 |
| Mother house | Clairvaux (1125–1790) Consolata (1826–1864) Sénanque (1864–1922) Solesmes (1922–1992) |
| Dedicated to | Mary,Saint Irene,Saint Andrew the Apostle |
| Diocese | Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chambéry–Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne–Tarentaise |
| People | |
| Founder(s) | Amadeus III, Count of Savoy |
| Architecture | |
| Heritage designation | Monument historique |
| Site | |
| Location | Saint-Pierre-de-Curtille,Savoy,France |
| Website | Hautecombe Abbey |
Hautecombe Abbey (French:Abbaye d'Hautecombe,French pronunciation:[otkɔ̃b];Latin:Altaecumbaeum) is a formerCistercian monastery, later aBenedictine monastery, inSaint-Pierre-de-Curtille inSavoie,France. For centuries it was the burial place of the members of theHouse of Savoy. It is visited by 150,000 tourists annually.
The origins of Hautecombe lie in a religious community which was founded about 1101 in a narrow valley (orcombe) nearLake Bourget byhermits fromAulps Abbey, nearLake Geneva. In about 1125 it was transferred to a site on the north-western shore of the lake under Mont du Chat, which had been granted to it byAmadeus III, Count of Savoy, who is named as the founder;[1] and shortly afterwards it accepted the Cistercian Rule fromClairvaux.
The first abbot was Amadeus de Haute-Rive, afterwardsBishop of Lausanne. Two daughter-houses were founded from Hautecombe at an early date:Fossanova Abbey (afterwards called For Appio), in thediocese of Terracina inItaly, in 1135, and San Angelo de Petra, close toConstantinople, in 1214.[2]
It has sometimes been claimed, but has often been disputed, thatPope Celestine IV andPope Nicholas III were monks at Hautecombe.[2]
It was at Hautecombe that for centuries theCounts and Dukes of Savoy were buried.Count Humbert III, known as "Blessed", and his wife Anne were interred there in the latter part of the 12th century; and about a century laterBoniface of Savoy, Archbishop of Canterbury (1245–1270), son ofCount Thomas I of Savoy, was buried in the sanctuary of the abbey church.Aymon, Count of Savoy financed the expansion of a burial chapel at Hautecombe which was constructed from 1331 to 1342.[3]
The abbot Anthony of Savoy, a son ofCharles Emmanuel I, was also buried there in 1673.[2]
The abbey was restored (in a debased style) by one of the dukes about 1750, but it was secularized and sold in 1792, when theFrench entered Savoy, and was turned into a china-factory. KingCharles Felix of Sardinia purchased the ruins in 1824, had the church re-constructed by thePiedmontese architect Ernest Melano in an exuberant Gothic-Romantic style, and restored it to the Cistercian Order.[4] He and his queen,Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies, are buried in the Belley chapel, which forms a kind of vestibule to the church. Some 300 statues and many frescoes adorn the interior of the church, which is 66 metres (217 ft) long, with a transept 26 metres (85 ft) wide. Most of the tombs are little more than reproductions of the medieval monuments.
In 1826 the Cistercians resettled the abbey fromTurin, but the Italian monks soon left, and were replaced by others fromSénanque Abbey, who remained until about 1884. In 1922 the premises were taken over by theBenedictines ofPriory of St. Madeleine in Marseilles. The benedictine monks left in 1992 forGanagobie Abbey in theAlpes-de-Haute-Provence, primarily to get away from the increasing tourist flow. The buildings are now administered by theChemin Neuf Community, acharismaticRoman Catholic group with an "ecumenical vocation".
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Hautecombe".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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45°45′10″N5°50′22″E / 45.75278°N 5.83944°E /45.75278; 5.83944
