Hambye Abbey, Medieval abbey in Hambye, France.
Hambye Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery on the Sienne, 3 km south of the village of Hambye. Its abbey church, built mostly between 1180 and 1250, is an early Gothic example modelled on Savigny: a choir with two bays, an ambulatory and five radiating chapels, and a square crossing tower 30 m high. The nave and facade were partly demolished in 1820, and the conventual buildings of the 12th and 13th centuries stand around the former cloister.
The monastery was founded in the 12th century and became an important religious center in Normandy. It was closed and partly destroyed during the French Revolution, leaving only partial structures standing today.
The abbey was the seat of the ecclesiastical lordship of Hambye, and in 1181 it was made head of an order, becoming mother house of the abbeys of Longues and Valmont. In 1249 six monks left with Father Dom Robert to found Notre-Dame de Lanténac in the Côtes-d'Armor. Louis d'Estouteville, defender of Mont Saint-Michel, and his wife Jeanne Paynel are buried in the choir.
The site is open to visitors who can walk through the ruins and explore the surviving buildings at their own pace. Wear comfortable shoes since the grounds are uneven and some paths may be rough.
The monastery had a dedicated room where monks carefully copied and decorated manuscripts by hand. This workspace reveals how important book production was to monastic life.
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