A great founding abbey

Founded by Saint Vital in the early 12th century, Savigny Abbey is at the origin of an important congregation (the Savignacian order), which founded many abbeys in France and, above all, in England. At the end of the century, it joined the Cistercian order. It is hard today to imagine the importance of this community, which enjoyed royal protection and could claim five monks who were later canonised.

After being sold as a National Asset during the French Revolution, the abbey became a stone quarry, like so many others, and seemed destined for complete destruction. Large stone walls now bear witness to this powerful, yet devastated, construction, whose cut stone and sculpted elements have all disappeared. The exception is the famous “door of Saint Louis”, which was saved from destruction by Arcisse de Caumont, the great Norman historian who founded the French Archaeological Society in 1833. In the past few years, the federated towns of Saint-Hilaire du Harcouët have undertaken archaeological digs as well as work to protect the ruins and showcase the site. In 2012, an interpretative tour was set up, and an interesting scale model of the abbey estate prior to its destruction can now be viewed near the site of the church.