Le Tart Abbey

Tart Abbey, also Le Tart Abbey, was the first nunnery of the Cistercian movement. It was located in the present commune of Tart-l'Abbaye in Burgundy (Côte-d'Or), near Genlis, on the banks of the River Ouche and only a few miles away from Cîteaux Abbey, the Cistercian mother house. The community moved to Dijon in 1623, and the abbey buildings in Tart were destroyed by war shortly afterwards; only ruins remain.

The foundation charter of Tart Abbey is dated 1132, although the deed mentions three previous gifts from 1125. The founder was Arnoul Cornu, lord of Tart-le-Haut, and his wife Emeline, and their gift consisted of the land of Tart, the tithes of Rouvres and Tart-la-Ville and the grange of Marmot.

It seems clear that the creation of this community was the result of a lengthy series of transactions, which may have begun in about 1120, involving not only Arnoul but the lord of Vergy (his overlord); Josserand de Brancion, Bishop of Langres; the family of Hugh II, Duke of Burgundy; the cathedral chapter of Langres; and Stephen Harding, abbot of the nearby Cîteaux Abbey.

The first abbess was Elizabeth de Vergy, widow of Humbert de Mailly, lord of Faverney or Fauverney, daughter of Savary de Donzy, Count of Chalon-sur-Saône. She was previously a novice in a Benedictine nunnery, Jully Abbey or Priory, at Jully-les-Nonnains, from where the new foundation at Tart was settled. She remained its head for the next 40 years.

Pope Eugene III put the abbey under Papal protection by a bull of 1147, confirmed by his successors.

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