Abbaye Sainte-Marie du Désert, Trappist monastery in Bellegarde-Sainte-Marie, France.

Abbaye Sainte-Marie du Désert is a stone and brick monastery complex enclosed by a wall in Bellegarde-Sainte-Marie. On the left, a low building with a weathered red tile roof, cream walls and two tall arched windows with dark grating flanks a white door. A central arched gateway with brown wooden doors and a cross leads inside; to the right stand a one-story brick building and, behind it, a taller brick building, both with red tile roofs and tall rectangular windows.

The monastery was founded in 1852 by monks from Notre-Dame d'Aiguebelle Abbey, establishing a Cistercian community in this location. It operated as an active cloister until 2020, when it transformed into a community space with a different purpose.

The abbey's name draws from the desert fathers of early Christianity, reflecting a tradition of contemplative solitude that still shapes the place today. Visitors sense this quietness in the monastic buildings and cloister, where spaces are arranged around the inner life of community.

The site is run by the Village de François association, which houses people with disabilities, people from the street and elderly residents, with about 70 people living there and some forty jobs in 2026. The abbey church became the parish church, served by a retired diocesan priest. As this is a lived-in community rather than a museum, visitors should arrange their visit in advance.

The chapel of the Sick, now named after Father Marie-Joseph Cassant, is one of the elements listed as a monument historique by decree of 23 November 2022, together with the abbey church, the pilgrimage chapel, the chapter house and the cloister floor that served as the monks' cemetery.