Hautecombe Abbey

Hautecombe Abbey

Monastery information
Other names	Abbaye Royale d'Hautecombe Abbazia Reale di Altacomba
Order	Benedictine
Established	c. 1101
Disestablished	1790–1826
Mother house	Clairvaux(1125–1790) Consolata(1826–1864) Sénanque(1864–1922) Solesmes(1922–1992)
Dedicated to	Mary,Saint Irene,Saint Andrew the Apostle
Diocese	Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chambéry–Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne–Tarentaise
People
Founder(s)	Amadeus III, Count of Savoy
Architecture
Heritage designation	Monument historique
Site
Location	Saint-Pierre-de-Curtille,Savoy,France
Website	Hautecombe Abbey

Hautecombe Abbey on the shores of the Lac du Bourget

Hautecombe Abbey(French:Abbaye d'Hautecombe,French pronunciation:[otkɔ̃b];Latin:Altaecumbaeum) is a formerCistercianmonastery, later aBenedictinemonastery, inSaint-Pierre-de-CurtilleinSavoie,France.For centuries it was the burial place of the members of theHouse of Savoy.It is visited by 150,000 tourists annually.

History

The origins of Hautecombe lie in a religious community which was founded about 1101 in a narrow valley (orcombe) nearLake BourgetbyhermitsfromAulps Abbey,nearLake Geneva.In about 1125 it was transferred to a site on the north-western shore of the lake under Mont du Chat, which had been granted to it byAmadeus III, Count of Savoy,who is named as the founder;and shortly afterwards it accepted the Cistercian Rule fromClairvaux.

The first abbot was Amadeus de Haute-Rive, afterwardsBishop of Lausanne.Two daughter-houses were founded from Hautecombe at an early date:Fossanova Abbey(afterwards called For Appio), in thediocese of TerracinainItaly,in 1135, and San Angelo de Petra, close toConstantinople,in 1214.

It has sometimes been claimed, but has often been disputed, thatPope Celestine IVandPope Nicholas IIIwere monks at Hautecombe.

It was at Hautecombe that for centuries theCounts and Dukes of Savoywere buried.Count Humbert III,known as "Blessed", and his wife Anne were interred there in the latter part of the 12th century; and about a century laterBoniface of Savoy, Archbishop of Canterbury(1245–1270), son ofCount Thomas I of Savoy,was buried in the sanctuary of the abbey church.Aymon, Count of Savoyfinanced the expansion of a burial chapel at Hautecombe which was constructed from 1331 to 1342.

The abbot Anthony of Savoy, a son ofCharles Emmanuel I,was also buried there in 1673.

The abbey was restored (in a debased style) by one of the dukes about 1750, but it was secularized and sold in 1792, when theFrenchentered Savoy, and was turned into a china-factory. KingCharles Felix of Sardiniapurchased the ruins in 1824, had the church re-constructed by thePiedmontesearchitect Ernest Melano in an exuberant Gothic-Romantic style, and restored it to the Cistercian Order.He and his queen,Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies,are buried in the Belley chapel, which forms a kind of vestibule to the church. Some 300 statues and many frescoes adorn the interior of the church, which is 66 metres (217 ft) long, with a transept 26 metres (85 ft) wide. Most of the tombs are little more than reproductions of the medieval monuments.

In 1826 the Cistercians resettled the abbey fromTurin,but the Italian monks soon left, and were replaced by others fromSénanque Abbey,who remained until about 1884. In 1922 the premises were taken over by theBenedictinesofPriory of St. Madeleinein Marseilles. The benedictine monks left in 1992 forGanagobie Abbeyin theAlpes-de-Haute-Provence,primarily to get away from the increasing tourist flow. The buildings are now administered by theChemin Neuf Community,acharismaticRoman Catholicgroup with an "ecumenical vocation".

Notes

This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Hautecombe".Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.