The Dormitory of the Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay

The Cistercian Abbey was founded in 1118 and offers a fascinating glimpse of the austere, serene surroundings in which Cistercian monks lived lives of contemplationand manual labour. The dormitory adjacent to the Abbey church is a large indoor hall with a magnificent oak frame of the fifteenth century that evokes the hull of an overturned ship. The original structure was destroyed in a fire. The monks slept, fully clothed, on simple spaced benches. Individual rooms were constructed in the late Middle Age – Dormitory of the Cistercian Abbey, Marmagne, Côte d’Or, Burgundy, France.