Notes on Kite Aerial Photography: Photo Gallery
The main Cloitre of the Royal Abbey is closed on one side by the Abbey
Church (Canon S100 and Canon 24-mm, July 2000)
Around 1150 or so, as the Plantagenets were beginning a long rise to power, the Abbey
at Fontevraud supervised nearly 5000 people distributed in a hundred Priories
and Convents spread across France, England and Spain. This was a large
enterprise for its time. Over the centuries thirty seven Abbesses,
generally drawn from aristocratic families, followed one another as
head of the Abbey. Other nobility, including
four daughters of King Louis XV were educated in Fontevraud.
Four views of the abbey church with its entry between twin spires. Like many
cathedrals the church is sited with its entrance, between the twin spires,
facing west and the apse in the eastern end. The entry to the church is unusual with respect to grade. One goes down a flight of stairs to reach the
front doors.and then down further steps to reach the nave (Canon
24-mm, July 2000)
The French revolution ended to the halcyon days
of Fontevraud. In 1804, during the First Empire, Napoleon made the
buildings of the Abbey into a prison for common law criminals. And until 1963 it
remained a prison, housing at times an inmate population of over
1,800. Over the last forty years it has been extensively restored and draws many
visitors in the present day
Ground-level and aerial views of the east end of the abbey church with its apse
and crossing transept. The tower marks the intersection of these elements with
the nave (Canon S100 Digital Elph and Canon 24-mm, July 2000)
The abbey church, consecrated in 1119, is
famous for its carved capitals and the immense single nave with four domes - one
of the best examples of that style in France. In the center of the nave are four
stone coffins. Beside Eleanor of Aquitaine (with painted effigy)
you also find Henry II of England, husband to
Eleanor; their "crusading" son Richard the Lion-Heart; and Isabelle
d'Angoulême, who poisoned her husband King John.
The visitors' center contains a fine site model of the Abbey and Fontevraud (Canon
S100 Digital Elph, July 2000)
You may remember Henry and
Eleanor as the characters played by Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn in the
1968 film The Lion in Winter. The film, based on James Goldman
play, takes place during Christmas of 1183, and stages an encounter between Henry II of England
and Eleanor of Aquitaine the drafty castle at Chinon.
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Comments to author: crisp@socrates.berkeley.edu . All content,
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No text, graphic or image may be used whole or in part, individually,
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All rights reserved. Revised: Sunday, August 19, 2001
URL: http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/gallery/gal182.html
