History

From the 10th-11th centuries, a small convent of Benedictine nuns was built in the valley, at the heart of the forest: "Our-Lady of Bondilhon". The nuns abandoned their convent at the end of the 12th century as the site had become unsafe. At that time, the bishop of Uzes, Guilhem de Vénéjan, attentive to the heretical peril that the Cathars represented to the estates of the Count of Toulouse, entered into relations with the Carthusian Order of Saint Bruno and permitted them to build a new monastery in 1204.

Thus was founded on February 10, 1203 the forty-first house of the Carthusian Order.

Beginnings were difficult, as for so many other monasteries. About ten monks who arrived in the forest of Bondilhon, had to reclaim and make habitable the small valley which was granted to them. Still today, a part of the buildings are built upon immense arches to assure proper drainage. This valley, returned to fertility by the constant labor of the Carthusian monks, became "vallis bona" (the "good valley"), or Valbonne.

Thanks to the numerous donations that were made to them, the Carthusian Order was quickly at the head of a large domain in the region. Their riches, their influence, their reputation for being intercessor to God, their works of charity which redistributed a large share of the received donations to the needy persons of the region - all this could only cause jealousy and greed on the part of their noble neighbors. Illustrations of this are the conflicts with the priorate of Saint Peter of Saint-Saturnin-du-Port (town now called Pont-Saint-Esprit).

From the 10th c. to the 100 years' war

From the 10th-11th centuries, a small convent of Benedictine nuns was built in the valley, at the heart of the forest: "Our-Lady of Bondilhon". The nuns abandoned their convent at the end of the 12th century as the site had become unsafe.

At that time, the bishop of Uzes, Guilhem de Vénéjan, attentive to the heretical peril that the Cathars represented to the estates of the Count of Toulouse, entered into relations with the Carthusian Order of Saint Bruno and permitted them to build a new monastery in 1204.

Thus was founded on February 10, 1204 the forty-first house of the Carthusian Order.

Beginnings were difficult, as for so many other monasteries. About ten monks who arrived in the forest of Bondilhon, had to reclaim and make habitable the small valley which was granted to them. Still today, a part of the buildings are built upon immense arches to assure proper drainage. This valley, returned to fertility by the constant labor of the Carthusian monks, became "vallis bona" (the "good valley"), or Valbonne.

Thanks to the numerous donations that were made to them, the Carthusian Order was quickly at the head of a large domain in the region. Their riches, their influence, their reputation for being intercessor to God, their works of charity which redistributed a large share of the received donations to the needy persons of the region - all this could only cause jealousy and greed on the part of their noble neighbors.

Illustrations of this are the conflicts with the priorate of Saint Peter of Saint-Saturnin-du-Port (town now called Pont-Saint-Esprit).

From the 100 years' war to 1780

The Hundred Years' War, that led the country into ruin, saw the birth of highwaymen, large gangs who looted, pillaged, ransomed and ravaged the countryside. Alas the Carthusian monastery of Valbonne was not spared. Establishments as vast and isolated as the monastery, incapable of effective defense by their very vocation, were singularly exposed.

The religious struggles of the 16th century had very severe repercussions on the monastery as well. In 1585, the site was ravaged, looted and burned. Four centuries of archives went up in smoke!

Only, the "Kalendarium Cartusiae Valisbonae", a voluminous manuscript of 1200 pages, written beginning in 1661, recalls a summary of the first four centuries of the life of the Carthusian monastery.

The Grande Chartreuse sent new fathers to restore and repopulate it. Work began in 1593 and the cells were ready for to be reoccupied ten years later. A particularly energetic prior, François Laurent, assured the site's security and so permitted the return of a regular conventual life to the monastery.

The grand cloister, as we see it today, and the entrance doorway were started during this period. The doorway, in the Renaissance style, as majestic as it is, is surmounted by a fortified window on corbels, witness to the defensive concerns that were still manifest at that time. The reconstruction was long, and the new church was only built between 1770 and 1780.

From 1780 to 1901

The renovation and the reconstruction of the Carthusian monastery of Valbonne was completed by the time of the French Revolution in 1789. Once again History brutally irrupted into the life of the monastery. As possessions of the Church were put at the disposal of the Nation, following a decree on November 2, 1789, the temporal assets of the monastery became national property.

On February 13, 1790, as the religious orders were suppressed by decree, the monks of the monasteries were dispersed. The last father left Valbonne on October 1st, 1790.

As at all the other French monasteries, property inventories were then drawn up by the municipal officers, but the Chartreuse de Valbonne was the only one not to to be sold, as it was slated to house a school.

This project having failed, the monastery and farmlands were given by decree, on 17 February 1804, to the hospital of Pont-Saint-Esprit to compensate it for the loss of its previous assets, sold as national possessions.

In 1822, the administrative commission charged with the management of the Carthusian monastery spoke of ruins, the entire monastery having been pillaged by the neighboring townships. As a result an auction was held and on January 28, 1836, the Carthusian Order repurchased the monastery for the sum of 65300 Francs.

Once again the Chartreuse de Valbonne was reborn from its ashes. Restoration and new construction followed. The Family Chapel as well as the Chapel of Relics dates from this period. A complete resurrection ensued: Gregorian chants sounded again inside, fields outside were cultivated anew, stables were repopulated and the herds restored. Strangers and needy persons were, as in the past, welcomed at the courtyard's entry and one would have thought that this buzzing hive was prepared for a great future.

Yet, just as the Carthusian monastery regained its life and serenity, its only aspirations being peace, tranquility, and silence for prayer and contemplation, a virulent quarrel occurred at the state level about the "lay issue". The Combes law of July 1st, 1901 placed religious communities under the control of the state which could authorize them - or not - according to their usefulness. The monks of Valbonne, as well as those of the other Carthusian monasteries of France, refusing to submit, were forced into exile. They left for Spain where they re-established the Aula Dei monastery which had been partly devastated during the two sieges of Saragossa by Napoleon Bonaparte.

This time, the monks had to abandon their home definitively and Dom Gorce, the last prior, left Valbonne on September 30, 1901.