Dovecote
Old postcard, private collection
The Abbey of Saint-Gildas de Châteauroux originated in Brittany. Around 536, Saint Gildas (c. 494–565) founded a monastery on the island of Houat (Morbihan), which later became known as Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys. Owing to the repeated Norman incursions it suffered, the monks abandoned it around 919 in search of a safer location. They took their possessions with them, including the relics of the founder.
At an uncertain date, between 920 and 927, they were temporarily received at the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Déols (Indre), which had been founded shortly before. The lords of Déols had built a castle on the site that would later become known as Châteauroux. Under their protection, Ebbes the Noble (874–935) began the construction of a monastery intended for the Breton refugees, and his son, Raoul le Large († 959), completed it. The transfer to the new establishment took place around 938. In 1129, the Bishop of Angoulême consecrated a new abbey church, probably built to replace the original church of the tenth century.
Thanks to the support of the lords of Châteauroux, the abbey enjoyed a period of prosperity and accumulated extensive possessions, including several priories, such as those of Saint-Maur-sur-Indre and Saint-Marcel. The introduction of the commendatory regime led the monastery into decline, a situation that worsened during the last quarter of the sixteenth century because of the Wars of Religion. In 1590, it underwent a siege that resulted in the loss of lives and property. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, reconstruction work was under way, but in 1622 the pope granted the secularization of the house to Henry II of Bourbon-Condé (1588–1646), Duke of Châteauroux, who took possession of it. The monastic buildings gradually disappeared. Today, the most visible vestige of the former abbey is the circular tower of a dovecote.
La Province de Berry (1707, detail)
Bibliothèque nationale de France
- BEAUNIER, Dom (1912). Abbayes et prieurés de l'ancienne France. Vol. 5. Bourges. Abbaye de Ligugé
- CHÉNON, Émile (1885). Un monastère breton à Châteauroux (Saint-Gildas en Berry). Rennes: Catel
- FAUCONNEAU-DUFRESNE, Victor Albans (1873). Histoire de Déols et de Châteauroux. Vol. 1. Châteauroux: A. Nuret
- LACOUR, Francesca (2011). L’abbaye Saint-Gildas de Châteauroux et ses dépendances en Bas-Berry. Colloque Saint Gildas
- LUCO, Jean-François (1869). Histoire de Saint Gildas de Rhuys. Vannes: L. Galles
- SAINT-MAUR, Congregació de (1720). Gallia Christiana in provincias ecclesiasticas distributa. Vol. 2. París: Typographia Regia
The Abbey of Saint-Gildas de Châteauroux was situated in Châteauroux, north of the historic town centre, on the right bank of the Indre