Information about the female priory of Aleyrac, also referred to as an abbey, is very scarce. It is first recorded in 1105, in a donation. In 1160, an act was held there which was attended, among other religious figures, by the bishop of Die.
Another act took place in 1250, also at the priory, when the prioress Clarmondia swore an oath of loyalty to the abbot of l’Île-Barbe (Metropolis of Lyon), probably as a confirmation of the priory’s dependence on that monastery. As late as 1295, a further document, involving the prioress Guillemette de Dieulefit and the count of Valentinois, set out their respective rights over the territory of the priory. This document records the names of the thirteen nuns who formed the community. In the last quarter of the 14th century, owing to the instability of the period, the house fell into decline and, in 1380, the nuns were forced to take refuge in Valréas, where they attempted to settle permanently. Nevertheless, in 1437 the priory was suppressed as a result of its state of decay.
The church at Aleyrac, then dedicated to Notre-Dame-la-Brune, took on parochial functions, but by the 17th century it had already fallen into ruin, a situation that worsened in the following century. In 1835 a new chapel was built, reusing materials from the former priory church. Today the ruins of the original church survive: a building with a single nave and a transept. It has a central polygonal apse, while the arms of the crossing contain two semicircular apsidioles, cut into the thickness of the walls. Despite the loss of material, the high quality of the surviving masonry is still noteworthy.
- BRUN-DURAND (1875). Aleyrac. Bulletin de la Société d'archéologie et de statistique de la Drôme, vol. 9. Valence
- HARTMANN-VIRNICH, Andréas (1995). La priorale Notre-Dame d’Aleyrac. Congrès archéologique de France, 150 ss. Société française d'archéologie
- LACROIX, André (1868). L'arrondissement de Montélimar. Valence: Combier et Nivoche
- MALBOIS, E. (1937). Le monastère d'Aleyrac. Bulletin de la Société d'archéologie et de statistique de la Drôme, vol. 66. Valence
- ROUQUETTE, J.-M. (1980). La Provence romane 1. Zodiaque. La nuit des temps
The priory belongs to the small commune of Aleyrac, located in an isolated setting, east of Montélimar