Abbaye Notre-Dame de Josaphat, Abbey in Lèves, France

Abbaye Notre-Dame de Josaphat stands in Lèves, near Chartres. Its cloister walk has pale grey stone pointed arches on columns under a dark timber roof; at one end an arch frames a brick building with tall windows. A long pale stone building with a steep dark roof, central spire and rounded pediment above the entrance is seen through an open metal gate.

Founded in 1117 by Geoffroy de Lèves, bishop of Chartres, and his brother Gosselin on ancestral lands, the abbey was confirmed by Pope Calixte II and Louis VI le Gros in 1119. It was burned by the English in 1432 and 1466, ruined by Calvinists in 1564, and restored when it joined the Congregation of Saint-Maur in 1640. Six bishops of Chartres, starting with Geoffroy, were buried in the abbey church.

The lapidary museum is housed in the rebuilt cloister of the former Notre-Dame de Coulombs abbey, placed on either side of the entrance to the Fondation d'Aligre et Marie-Thérèse. It displays tombs from the 12th and 13th centuries unearthed during excavations led around 1905 by Abbé Charles Métais, then priest of Lèves. Among the pieces are the sarcophagus of Jean de Salisbury, bishop of Chartres, and the recumbent effigy of Lucia de Lèves.

The site now houses the Fondation d'Aligre et Marie-Thérèse, a public departmental establishment, so the buildings are seen from outside. The lapidary museum in the rebuilt cloister of the former Abbaye Notre-Dame de Coulombs, flanking the entrance, holds the tombs unearthed in 1905. The Via Turonensis to Santiago de Compostela runs alongside the grounds.

Local tradition holds that Bishop Geoffroy de Lèves had vowed to travel to Jerusalem; Pope Paschal II released him from the vow on condition that he spend the same sum founding a monastery. The house was named Josaphat after the valley in the Holy Land, and in 1119 Calixtus II and Louis VI the Fat confirmed its property.