According to tradition, the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Ligueux was founded by Charlemagne, who donated the relic of Saint Simeon’s arm to it. That first establishment was destroyed in the mid-9th century due to a Norman invasion and disappeared. In the early 12th century, Gerald of Salles (c. 1050–1120) restored it as a hermitage, around which a community of women gathered.
Around 1115, the Benedictine monastery was founded, with Maximira as its first abbess. At that time, it was mentioned as a mixed monastery. It received protection and donations from local lords, assets that were confirmed in 1188 by Pope Clement III, who also placed the abbey under his direct authority. At the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th, the abbey was attacked and looted due to the wars affecting the region, to the point where it was left without a community, with only the abbess remaining.
Thanks to the protection of Pope Eugene IV and King Charles VII of France, the abbey was revived, but it was once again damaged during the Wars of Religion, particularly in the 1570s and 1580s, when the community was forced to take refuge in the Priory of Allois. In 1617, its recovery began, and the abbey remained active until the Revolution, when it was suppressed and dissolved definitively.
Today, most of the monastic complex has been lost. The remaining structures include the Romanesque church, albeit with many modifications, the 17th-century prior’s palace, and some minor buildings.
Abbot's residence
Photo by Père Igor, on Wikimedia
- COTTINEAU, Laurent-Henri (1936). Répertoire topo-bibliographique des abbayes et prieurés. Vol. 1. Mâcon: Protat
- ESCARS, Comte d'. (1854). Notice historique sur l'abbaye de Ligueux en Périgord. Le Crhoniqueur du Périgord et du Limousin. Perigús
- MOUSNIER, Marie-Thérèse (2000). L’abbaye de Ligueux, pensionnat pour jeunes filles nées
- SAINT-MAUR, Congregació de (1720). Gallia Christiana in provincias ecclesiasticas distributa. Vol. 2. París: Typographia Regia
- VIAUT, Laura (2020). Les fragments manuscrits inédits du cartulaire de l’abbaye de Ligueux. Étude et édition. Francia, núm. 47
The ruins of the monastery are located in Ligueux, northeast of Périgueux