Abbaye Notre-Dame des Fontenelles, Augustinian abbey in La Roche-sur-Yon, France

Abbaye Notre-Dame des Fontenelles is a former Augustinian abbey in granite, built in the Angevin Gothic style between Romanesque and Gothic. Its truncated church, the most intact structure, has a single-bay nave with domed rib vaults forming eight ribs and a Greek-cross plan. Substantial remains of the chapter room survive; the rest is ruined, with rough grey masonry, a tall section under a steep tiled roof, two narrow arched windows, and a large stone archway.

Guillaume de Mauléon and Béatrice de Machecoul founded the abbey in 1210 for Augustinian canons from Chancelade, after a dispute with the Benedictine abbey of Marmoutier. The high altar was consecrated in 1248 by Jean de Melun, bishop of Poitiers. Protestants burned it in 1562, killing monks and shortening the nave; the last regular abbot died in 1487, and the abbey was sold as national property in 1791.

The name Fontenelles comes from a small iron-rich spring on the site, which gave the abbey its title. The church keeps a recumbent effigy in an arched recess, held to be either the foundress Béatrice de Machecoul or her daughter Jeanne, Vicomtesse de Thouars. The site is private property and has served as a farm since the Revolution.

The abbey is private property, so access is not open as a public monument; the grounds are farm land and the ruins stand in a grassy field. The truncated church is the most intact structure, with the chapter room remains nearby. Ask the owner before entering, and wear sturdy shoes for uneven ground.

The truncated church preserves a recumbent effigy in an arched recess, traditionally identified as the foundress Béatrice de Machecoul or her daughter Jeanne, Vicomtesse de Thouars. The granite abbey, in Angevin Gothic style, was sold as national property in 1791 and remains privately owned.