The Monastery of La Verne

We decided to brave the winding and narrow road between Collobrieres and the coast, in order to visit the Monastery of La Verne.   The monastery or priory, is now a convent, and is situated high up in the hills, and accessible via an extremely narrow road, which is now tarmac, thank goodness   In 2000, it was a gravel road.    The monastery has now been fully restored, including the large cloister and church.  They were ruins thirteen years ago. 

There is now a carpark, about 600 metres from the monastery, and people have to walk the last part, along the original narrow gravel road.

The road runs past many dry waterfalls and a dry ravine.   Spectacular scenery which one can appreciate on foot, rather than missing out on scenery due to worrying about the car travelling too close to the edge of the road.

The old entrance to the monastery, in the middle of a high wall.  The great door of serpentine-stone symbolises the rupture with the wordly life, for a life devoted solely to God.

The Carthusian monastery was built in 1170, on the site of another Priory, and during the next few centuries it suffered many attacks from raiders and was burnt down a few times, but was always rebuilt.    Until 1790, when the Revolution brought  with it the confiscation of all the possessions of the monastery.   After the last monks fled, the buildings and land became the property of the state, who then sold it all, and over the last few centuries the monastery fell into disrepair, until there were just ruins left.

In 1961 the Ministery of Forestry and Water took control of the site on behalf of the state, and in 1968 the association 'Les Amis de la Verne' was founded and refurbishment began.   In 1983 a long term lease (99 years) between the state and the congregation of the nuns of Bethelem, of the Assumption of the Virgin and of St Bruno.    The nuns now live in the monastery, and carry out their religious life, often in silent retreat, in the 13 cels around the cloister of solitude.   The nuns are also involved in making crafts, mostly pottery, which are sold in the shop there.

Interestingly the nuns wear hooded cloaks, over their habits, such as monks wear in a monastery.

A view through a window of the restored Romanesque church.   The church faces east, as in the tradition of monastery churches.    The east represents Jerusalem.

This is the barn, which now houses statues of religious art.

The bakery, with its enormous bread oven, 5 metres in its longest axis.   The oven was needed to bake bread and also cook meals for the monks and the people who visited the monastery.

A small cloister, surrounded by the newly restored buildings.

A replica of a cell of solitude, which was the place where the monk prayed, lived worked, slept and ate everyday of his life, apart from the two daily liturgical celebrations which took place at the church.

The large cloister of solitude.       This is the heart of the monastery, and around the 90m gallery are the cells in which the nuns live in prayer, solitude, silence and sacrifice.

This is another small cloister, with it's magnificent serpentine stone arcades.   Through these arcades the nuns walk in procession from the church to the refectory on Sundays and feast days, where they take their meal together.

Walter posing at the gate, with the forest behind him.

It was a very memorable experience, walking around this old, but restored monastery, and well worth the long, slow drive to get there.