Abbaye de la Grâce-Dieu de Benon, Cistercian abbey in Benon, France

The Abbaye de la Grâce-Dieu in Benon is a former Cistercian monastery whose surviving buildings centre on a long, low range of pale grey-beige masonry with irregular stonework. A regular row of small dark rectangular windows sits above several ground-level entrances, including a central door with a projecting stone surround and small cornice, and two round-arched openings with stepped frames to the right. The roof is low-pitched and dark, with small chimneys and a slender stack at each end; a band of stone courses runs between the two levels. The rectangular abbatial house, probably built in 1663, keeps vestiges of the medieval chapter house, and the round-shafted dovecote was rebuilt in 1720.

Guillaume X of Aquitaine gave the site to the monks of Clairvaux in 1136, making it that abbey's sixteenth daughter house; Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Louis VII were among the donors. The monks drained the Andilly marshes, and the house prospered until 1395, founding Charon abbey and the priories of La Névoire and Rioux. From 1574 it passed into commendation, and the Wars of Religion, notably around the siege of La Rochelle, left it largely destroyed; it was partly rebuilt in the later 17th century under abbots Hugues Morisset and Élie Chevrauld.

The abbey's name, La Grâce-Dieu, is tied to a spring known as a miraculous fountain, to which a pilgrimage was held each year on 14 and 15 August. The monks also drained the Andilly marshes and founded the daughter abbey of Charon and the priories of La Névoire and Rioux.

The site is in private ownership and visits require advance notice and arrangement with the owners. Guided tours are available to explain the architectural features and layout of the former monastery.

The abbey church, now gone, measured 41 metres long, 11 wide and 16 metres under vault. The site also had a fountain called miraculous, to which a pilgrimage was held each 14 and 15 August. The dovecote with its round shaft was rebuilt in 1720.