Grande-Sauve Abbey

Grande-Sauve Abbey or Sauve-Majeure Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery near the present village of La Sauve in the department of the Gironde, in a region once heavily forested. Although now in ruins, the remains of the abbey are still of great interest in terms of Romanesque architecture, especially because of the many sculpted capitals still surviving.

In 1998 the abbey ruins were included as part of the UNESCO world heritage site of the pilgrimage route to St. James of Compostela.

On the spot known as Hauteville, halfway between the Garonne and the Dordogne, Gerald of Sauve-Majeure founded the abbey of Grande-Sauve in 1079, of which he was also the first abbot. Its name refers to the Silva Major, the great forest that then occupied the whole region known as the Vignoble de l'Entre-Deux-Mers ("vineyard between two seas"), which was a gift to Gerald from Duke William VIII of Aquitaine.

With the support of the duke, the Pope and a large number of generous benefactors and protectors, including the kings of England, its patrons, and France, the abbey prospered and grew rapidly. It is sited on the route to Santiago de Compostela and served as a local point of departure for pilgrims. Abbot Gerald was buried there at his death in 1095 and Pope Celestine III canonised him in 1197. The present church was consecrated in 1231.

Grande-Sauve Abbey had a monastic life governed by the Rule of St. Benedict and based on that of Cluny, although it did not belong to the Cluniac Order. In the Middle Ages it was a rich and powerful house and possessed 51 priories, including at Burwell in England. Eleanor of Aquitaine stayed there often. In wealth and power it rivalled the urban centre of Bordeaux. However, the abbey's wealth attracted bandits, Basques and the Navarrese, who plundered it many times. The townspeople of La Sauve also rebelled often against the rich monks.

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Wikipedia