LDV88-9

51 Royaumont Abbey Founded in 1228 by the young Louis IX – the future Saint Louis – and his mother Blanche of Castile, Royaumont is the largest Cistercian abbey in the Île-de-France region. Its buildings, listed as a Historic Monument in 1927, are laid out around a magnificent cloister and include one of the finest examples of a Gothic refectory in France. Nestling in a setting of timeless beauty, the monument has experienced several lives, successively as a Cistercian monastery, a court abbey, an industrial site, a novitiate, a war hospital and a country residence. It is surrounded by three gardens awarded the label ‘remarkable’ by the French Ministry of Culture. Since 1964, the Fondation Royaumont (Goüin-Lang) pour le Progrès des Sciences de l’Homme (for the advancement of human sciences) has curated and enriched this heritage, which it revitalises through the presence of artists and by opening it to the general public. Royaumont has the status of Centre Culturel de Rencontre, and organises a festival devoted to music and dance every autumn.