Abbaye des Prémontrés
Considered as one of the greatest religious orders of the Middle Ages together with the Cistercians and the Benedictines, the Norbertine order, founded by Saint Norbert in 1121 near Laon in the department of Aisne, has strongly contributed to the religious and spiritual history of Lorraine until the seventeenth century.
From the little abbey of Sainte-Marie-aux-Bois, around ten kilometres from Pont-Ã -Mousson, was born the imposing Sainte-Marie-Majeure begun at the start of the seventeenth century, thanks to Servais de Lairuelz, the Norbertine abbot of Verdun and reformer of the order, helped by the Jesuits of the town who, with their university, turned the small town into a religious and intellectual centre that very quickly became a bastion of the Catholic faith.
The abbey we know today was started in 1705 under the reign of duke Léopold I of Lorraine and the traditionally inspired architect, Thomas Mordillac who laid the first stone.
Completed by Nicolas Pierson, it also leaves us an example of a strikingly sober Baroque style.
Here, religious and intellectual life was most prosperous. On the death of duke Stanislas in 1766, the royal edict annexing Lorraine to France abolished the Company of Jesus and was the decline of most of the religious communities in the city.
Shortly after, the Revolution put an end to all the convents in the city. The Norbertine Abbey was almost the only one to survive. In the nineteenth century the bishopric of Nancy created a small seminary. The professors quit the building in 1906 subsequent to the law separating the State and the Church.
Then becoming the property of the State, it was given to the city in 1912 and became a civil hospital until 1944.
In 1945, the scale of work to be undertaken forced the municipal council to vote for the complete destruction of what still remained standing.
Very fortunately, there were people who cared for their heritage and did not like to see this building disappear, a witness to the prestigious past of their city and Lorraine.
An association was quickly created.
Building permission was granted in 1959. And thus the long task was embarked upon, involving architects, sculptors, fibrous plaster specialists, glaziers and wrought-iron craftsmen. It took no less than twenty years to rebuild everything.
Like the Cistercian abbey of Royaumont, the Norbertine abbey was transformed into cultural centre.
After a great deal of work, the association was able to open part of the buildings to the public in October 1964.
Concerts, exhibitions, seminaries and conferences, rooms.
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