Abbaye de Silvacane

The Abbaye de Silvacane is a former Cistercian monastery founded in 1144 on the southern bank of the Durance river in the Provençal countryside near La Roque-d'Anthéron. It is considered one of the three great Romanesque Cistercian abbeys of Provence — alongside Sénanque and Le Thoronet — celebrated for the austere, ornament-free architecture that embodies the Order's ascetic ideals. After falling into disrepair during the late Middle Ages, the abbey was used as a farmhouse following its dissolution during the French Revolution before the French state classified it as a historic monument and restored it. Visitors today can explore the Romanesque cloister with its clean round arches and the three-aisled abbey church, a space whose power lies entirely in proportion and the quality of Provençal light filtering through unadorned stone.