The abbey of Notre-Dame de Prébenoît was founded on this site in 1040 by monks from Dalon Abbey, during the tenure of Abbot Roger, successor to Gerald of Salles. It has been suggested that it may have had an eremitic origin linked to Gerald of Salles, but more concrete information about Prébenoît only appears with its foundation as a monastery, and no definitive evidence supports that theory.
Due to the loss of its early records, little detailed information about its history has survived. The monastery enjoyed the protection of the lords of Malval, traditionally considered its founders, and later established connections with other noble families in the region, notably the Brosse. Dalon Abbey, together with its affiliated monasteries, gradually moved closer to the Cistercian Order, and in 1162, the entire congregation formally joined the Cistercians, becoming part of the Pontigny filiation.
Prébenoît seems to have escaped direct damage during the Hundred Years’ War, although it was fortified in that turbulent context. Nevertheless, in 1590, during the Wars of Religion, the monastery was occupied for an extended period and suffered severe damage. These events, combined with the adoption of the commendatory system, led to its decline.
After some degree of normalization, and despite its precarious state, a few new buildings were erected. At the time of the Revolution, when the abbey was suppressed, it housed only one monk. The site later passed into private hands before being acquired by public authorities in the late twentieth century. Today, some conventual buildings from the seventeenth-century reconstruction survive, along with a few heavily damaged remains from the medieval period.
Affiliation of Prébenoît
SAccording to Originum Cisterciensium (L. Janauschek, 1877)- BEAUNIER, Dom (1912). Abbayes et prieurés de l'ancienne France. Vol. 5. Bourges. Abbaye de Ligugé
- DELANNOY, H. (1911). Notice sur l'abbaye et les abbés de Prébenoît. Mémoires de la société des sciences naturelles et archéologiques de la Creuse, vol. XVIII
- JACQUES, Roger; i altres (2008). L’identification de la sépulture du seigneur Roger de Brosse († 1287) à l’abbaye de Prébenoît, Creuse. Une approche pluridisciplinaire. Aquitania, vol. 24
- JANAUSCHEK, Leopoldus (1877). Originum Cisterciensium. Vol. 1. Viena
- ROY DE PIERREFITTE, J.-B. L. (1857-63). Études historiques sur les monastères du Limousin & de la Marche, vol. 1. Guêret: Betoulle
- SAINT-MAUR, Congregació de (1720). Gallia Christiana in provincias ecclesiasticas distributa. Vol. 2. París: Typographia Regia