Ancienne abbaye de Bonlieu

English translation

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History

Around 1119, Amelius de Chambon gave the mas of Mazerolles to Géraud de Salis, founder of the abbey of Dalon. Géraud de Salis created a monastery there whose first sanctuary was consecrated around 1141. In 1163, Bonlieu was aggregated to the order of Cîteaux. A vast church consecrated in 1232 was built there. The buildings were arranged in a quadrilateral, one of whose sides was formed by the abbatial church. Of the latter remain the two first bays of the nave and ruins of the apse. The original plan was constituted by a nave without aisles terminated by a pentagonal apse, with dome on pendentives at the crossing of the transept. Murals adorned it, of which there remain two crosses of consecration painted on each side of the axial window of the chevet. The apse was vaulted in a cul-de-four. A pavement of painted tiles from the 13th century was found in the church in the 19th century. In the axis of these vestiges is found a rectangular tower, completed in 1421 for a defensive purpose. A square turret for the staircase containing the spiral staircase occupies the middle of the façade. A rectangular dwelling body rises to the north of the tower, presenting a circular turret attached to its west façade. Two elongated dwelling bodies from the 18th century, arranged perpendicularly, occupy the east and north sides of the quadrilateral. At some distance, the religious built a bridge at the end of the Middle Ages, a work presenting two arches in broken tracery and triangular cutwater.