Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe Abbey
Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe Abbey was founded in the 9th century, about 30 miles from Poitiers in France. The abbey's early history is difficult to decipher as the abbey's records were destroyed in the 14th century.[1] It is dedicated to Saint Savin, a 5th-century Christian martyr near whose grave the abbey was built.[2] When the Normans invaded France in the 9th century, many monastic houses suffered however for a while the Abbey of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe escaped such a fate.[3] That was the case until 878 when the abbey was sacked and abandoned.[2]
In 1983 the abbey became designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, as it is considered to “represent a masterpiece of human creative genius” and “bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared”. The World Heritage Site is named the "Abbey Church of Saint-Savin sur Gartempe".[4][5]
References
- ↑ André Vauchez, Barrie Dobson, and Michael Lapidge (eds.) (2000). Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, Volume 1. Cambridhe: James Clarke & Co. p. 1,286. ISBN 1-57958-282-6.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Hansen, David A. (2006). Architecture of France. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 248 ISBN 0-313-31902-2.
- ↑ Williams, Walkin Wynn (1938). Monastic Studies. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 93.
- ↑ ”The Criteria for Selection”, UNESCO, accessed 9 April 2013.
- ↑ "Abbey Church of Saint-Savin sur Gartempe”, UNESCO, accessed 9 April 2013.