Bèze Abbey

The Bèze Abbey (French: Abbaye Saint-Pierre, Saint-Paul de Bèze), was a monastery founded in 629 AD in Burgundy, France. It was destroyed several times during the next three centuries by Frankish warlords, Saracens, Normans and Hungarians. At the end of the 10th century the abbey was re-founded and entered a golden age for the next two centuries. By the 13th century the spiritual life of the abbey had declined and the monks were mainly concerned with temporal matters. The abbey lost most of its monks during the Hundred Years' War and the Black Death of the 14th century. In 1429 it was fortified with stone walls, a moat and towers, two of which have survived. The abbey was again devastated by feuds in 1513, by the French Wars of Religion (1562–98) and by the Thirty Years' War (1618–48).

In 1662 a final revival began when the monastery came under the Congregation of Saint Maur. Most of the surviving buildings date from the reconstruction by this congregation in the 18th century. At the start of the French Revolution in 1789 the monastery was dissolved and the property taken over by the state. It was sold, and the church and main buildings demolished so the stone could be used for building. The owners of the property added an orangerie and laid out a park in the 19th century. Today the private owners have made the grounds and buildings open for visitors for a small fee.