Eglise abbatiale de Pontigny

(12th - 17th centuries)
The abbey of Pontigny is one of the most beautiful examples of Cistercian churches that can be admired in France. Rarely have the nobility, purity, and momentum of Cistercian architecture reached such perfection. The second daughter of Cîteaux, the abbey of Pontigny was founded in 1114, on the banks of the Serein, on the borders of Burgundy and Champagne, but the current abbey church was built in two stages between 1137 and 1150. His style is exactly at the transition between Romanesque and Gothic. The porch of the facade is arched with ridges. The aisles, the crosspieces of the transept are also so, as should have been, it seems, the nave which in fact received the first vault of warheads built in Burgundy.
At the end of the 12th century, the original flat bedside was destroyed and replaced by the elegant Gothic choir of today. Benefiting quickly from a great influence, she founded nineteen direct "daughter abbeys", which, in turn, created forty-five others. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Pontigny welcomed three English archbishops in exile: Thomas Becket, Étienne Langton and Edmond d 'Abingdon and continued to attract many English pilgrims. A park of about ten hectares shared by a branch comprising an alley of charms, an alley of lime trees leading to the abbey, a lawn planted with three centenary trees, two monolithic basins and a natural lawn.