La Ferté Abbey, Cistercian monastery in Saint-Ambreuil, France

La Ferté Abbey is a Cistercian monastery in Saint-Ambreuil featuring an 18th-century abbot's residence that displays balanced proportions and refined details. The structures show classical design through their symmetrical layouts and carefully arranged rooms.

Founded in 1113 by Stephen Harding, abbot of Cîteaux, who sent the monk Philibert and companions to a site between the Bragny forest and the Grosne marshes, La Ferté was the first of the four primary daughter abbeys of Cîteaux. It was fortified in 1415, sacked in 1562 and 1567, and burned by Gaspard II de Coligny's Protestant troops in 1570; only the church, sacristy, chapter house and an adjacent room survived. Suppressed in 1791, it was sold as national property.

The abbey's name survives in the hamlet of La Ferté-sur-Grosne, and its Latin name was Abbatia Firmitas. From La Ferté came sixteen daughter houses, five of them direct: Maizières in France, Tiglieto, Lucedio and Barona in Italy, and Sanctus Sergius in the Lebanon. The former monks' refectory is preserved inside the abbot's house.

The site was officially recognized as a historical monument in 1993, ensuring its protection under French heritage conservation laws. Visitors will find the location situated within rolling countryside that mixes wooded areas with cleared land.

The abbot's house that survives was built from 1682 by Abbot Claude Petit, who also had the cloister erected while the fortifications were demolished and the moats filled in. Around 1760 Abbot François Filzjean de Chemilly added its central projecting bay, whose pediment carries his coat of arms.