The Corbieres hold the secret: at the end of a long narrow track in the middle of the garrigue cypress trees lining the way lies one of the most beautiful Cistercian abbeys to be seen in France. Fontfroide is also the Gateway to Cathar Country: this is the site of the Crusade of Albi an important cultural landmark in the Narbonne area.

The Golden Age of Fontfroide

On a spiritual level, Fontfroide is  today still just as radiant. From 1151 the community wanting to spread the word and replicate it like the famous Abbey of Poblet in Spain. The gateway to Cathar Country  Fontfroide is a bastion of orthodoxy thanks to the energy of the abbots: these saints who went out and preached the good word among the heretics. It was in fact the assassination of Pierre de Castelnau, monk of Fontfroide and legate of the Pope which sparked off the 1209-1210 Crusade resulting in the annexing of the Languedoc to the French Crown.

When peace returned worked resumed and huge buildings meant for the converted monks were erected. Fontfroide remains one of the most important religious sites in Christianity under the Popes of Avignon (Benoit XII became Abbot of Fontfroide.)

But in 1348 the Black Plague ravaged the Languedoc leaving only half the community alive – the end of a golden age. The monastic life is extinguished and in the 18^th century the few remaining monks using their wealth set about to embellish the chateau with a superb palace in ochre and pink colours of the Corbiere stone

From 1858 to 1901 the Abbey was occupied by a small community of Cistercians  of the Order of the Immaculate Conception

In 1908 the abandoned buildings were bought by a local family saving it from being destroyed.

In 1093, the Viscount Aimeric I authorised a group of monks to occupy the lands of Fons frigidus. The site was ideal for a monastery with its cold water source and situated in the secret and hidden woods of the Corbieres. In 1145 it was affiliated to the order of Citeaux it soon became very prosperous. In the 13^th century the community owned 25 large farms or fortified barns, 20000 head of sheep, and over a hundred agricultural domains ranging from Aude, Roussillon to Catalonia.

It was the golden age of this magnificent 12^th century Abbey of cathedral proportions, the main hall, the polychrome cloisters – a veritable garden of stone with its floral cornices….these buildings uniform in apparel the ochre and rose stone of the Corbieres make Fontfroide one of the purest works of art of the Cistercian period.

The Great Rose Gardens of Fontfroide

Waiting for you in the ancient gardens tended by the monks are almost 3000 roses providing 11 splashes of colours when in flower (May to September) these majestic colours range from pure white to carmine and every shade of pink in between. Ochre and orange too reflect the natural colours of the region. Just above the rose garden there is the Saint-Fiacre enclosure ‘ the pathways’ with a beautiful collection of scented plants of all types.

General Information

14 km from Narbonne and 4 km from Bizanet RD 613

Open : All year round

All visits are guided (a little more than an hour)

Walks all around along pretty paths, in the garrigue with lovely views of the Abbey from the top of the colline de la croix (about 45 mins walk along the top of the massif de Fontfroide)