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Nestling in the wooded valleys of the Var countryside, Thoronet is one of the most remarkable Cistercian abbeys. The emotional impact of the architecture is the result of its extreme sobriety, with stone and light working in perfect harmony.
Visiting Thoronet Abbey
• A masterpiece of Provencal Romanesque art. Apart from the cross-ribbed vaulting in the chapter house, where Gothic influences may already be detected, majestic Romanesque vaulting predominates from the Church to the cellar and dormitory.
• A hymn to simplicity. The purity of the volumes, the rigorous simplicity of the stonework and the absence of any sculptured decoration lend Thoronet its unadorned beauty, in accordance with the spiritual principles of Saint Bernard and in reaction against the luxury of Cluny.
Understanding Thoronet Abbey
• The ‘marvellous' Cistercian abbeys. Built between 1160 and 1230, Thoronet Abbey, together with Silvacane and Sénanque, is one of three Cistercian abbeys in Provence. In danger of disappearing after the French Revolution, restoration work began on this masterpiece in 1841.
• An example for contemporary architecture. Generations of architects were inspired by the purity and simplicity of the volumes, dictated mainly by the organisation of community life. Le Corbusier visited the site in 1953: ‘In these days of ‘brut concrete', however fêted, welcome and blessed it may be, this was such a marvellous encounter along the way'.
