Abbaye Notre-Dame de Lanvaux, Medieval Cistercian abbey in Brandivy, France

Abbaye Notre-Dame de Lanvaux is a former Cistercian abbey in the Loc'h valley, 26 km northwest of Vannes. What remains includes the building of the commendatory abbots, the walls of the church choir, and the foundations of the transept and nave rebuilt at the end of the 17th century.

Founded in July 1138 by Baron Alain Ier de Lanvaux, who gave his lands to four monks from Bégard Abbey, it was one of that house's five daughter abbeys. It passed under Langonnet's authority in 1225, and the confiscation of the Lanvaux barony in 1238 ended its expansion. Commendatory rule began in 1528; the abbey was sold in 1791 to a Lorient merchant.

The abbey's name comes from the Lanvaux barony whose founder Alain I granted his lands in 1138. Its 1513 seal shows Notre-Dame sheltering six kneeling monks under her cloak. The choir stalls, rebuilt around 1488, were carved with the fabliau of the fox preaching to hens, a satire of preaching friars found in several Breton medieval churches.

The former abbey buildings stand in the Loc'h valley at the edge of the Forêt de Lanvaux, about 26 km northwest of Vannes. What remains is mainly the commendatory abbots' building, the choir walls and the foundations of the transept and nave rebuilt at the end of the 17th century. A rural gîte now operates on the site, so check access and opening conditions before coming.

The abbey's 1513 seal showed Notre-Dame opening her cloak to shelter six kneeling monks at her feet. The monks also held high, middle and low justice over Pluvigner, Bieuzy and Plumelin, and in 1224 acquired a mill near the Étang de Gorguen by donation.