Abbaye de Valmagne

The Abbaye de Valmagne, formally the Abbaye Sainte-Marie de Valmagne, is a former Cistercian monastery near Villeveyrac in the Hérault department, about 30 kilometres southwest of Montpellier, surrounded by the dry scrubland of the southern French garrigue. Founded in 1101 and expanded into a full Gothic abbey church through the 12th and 13th centuries, it ranks among the best-preserved medieval monastic complexes in southern France and is a classified Monument Historique. After the Revolution dissolved the monastery, an ingenious adaptation saved the church nave from ruin: wine barrels were installed between the Gothic piers, a practice that continues to this day — the abbey is now an active wine estate, and its church interior doubles as a barrel cellar. Visitors can tour the cloister, chapter house, and soaring nave before purchasing wines produced on the estate, a rare pairing of medieval sacred architecture and living viticulture.