The Abbey of Beaulieu-en-Rouergue and its Modern Art Collection

In the heart of the Seye valley, on the border of the Lot and Aveyron departments, lies a wooded, flower-scented valley alive with the sound of fresh running water and birdsong. This place of extraordinary harmony is home to the Cistercian abbey of Beaulieu-en-Rouergue. Founded in 1144 by the bishop of Rodez, Adhémar III, under the impetus of Bernard de Clairvaux (the great spiritual master of the monastic order), Beaulieu is an abbey characteristic of the time, with its quadrilateral layout around a cloister, which was destroyed in 1562 during the Wars of Religion. To the east, the monks' building, with the chapter house where the weekly chapter was held and the dormitory, was built before 1250, as was the west building devoted to the lay brothers (whose work supported the abbey), with their dormitory and the Gothic cellar. To the south, the abbot's residence, which included the refectory, kitchen and abbot’s reception rooms, dates from the 17th and 18th centuries. Finally, to the north, the large abbey church, begun in the 13th century and completed early in the…