Abbaye Saint-André en Gouffern
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A Troubling Heritage But With Undeniable Origins.
By a wooded hill, the landscape shifts to moor and heather, as the centuries turn back... A Cistercian abbey was once here, Saint-André en Gouffern, founded in 1130 by Guillaume, Count of Pontieu, better known as Talvas, powerful lord of the county.
You will see the land cleared by the monks.
Only three buildings remain from this abbey, the sole survivors of the Revolution. The abbey was sold off as a national asset to one Mr. Bellou, a farmer at Villers Canivet, who within a year destroyed everything.
Or almost everything, since these three sumptuous buildings were spared... On the side of one these buildings, buttresses can be seen, like troubling scars: these are the remains of the abbey church. Another building, with lovely Gothic windows, will lead you into the grand intimacy of its rib-vaulted main room... Is it an echo of the quest to live in harmony with Heaven and Earth that one feels from these walls ? Or is it St. Bernard's message reverberating through the centuries ? The soul of a place never dies, especially that of an abbey.
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