History
article | Reading time8 min
Five centuries ago, the royal monastery of Brou was born thanks to the audacity and will of an exceptional princess, Marguerite of Austria. It is for the love of her husband Philibert le Beau, who died suddenly, that she had it built. Dive with us in the history of this exceptional monument!
The project of an exceptional woman
After a beginning of life marked by big disappointed hopes and bereavements, Marguerite d'Autriche found her happiness in 1501 when she married Philibert le Beau.
But her happiness was short-lived: only three years after their union, he died suddenly.
Inconsolable, Marguerite of Austria decided tobuild a superb mausoleumin his honor . The future monastery will have to shelter three : one for Philibert, one for his mother, and one for herself.
© Franck Paubel
A construction site carried out in record time
Marguerite of Austria lays the first stone on August 28, 1506.
The building site begins with the three cloisters, which are completed only 7 years later, in 1513. The construction of the church began in 1512.
Directing the work from Mechelen the regent of the Netherlands, also countess of Burgundy and duchess of Savoy, devoted a large part of her fortune to the construction of the building.
She wanted the best : artists, craftsmen and materials came from all over Europe, the plans were inspired by the splendor of Flemish architecture of the 16th century.
Marguerite of Austria died in 1530, two years before the end of the work. In 1532, she was buried in the royal monastery of Brou alongside her husband. Occupied in Malines since the beginning of the construction of the monument, she never returned to Brou during her lifetime.
© Jean-Christophe Ballot
FIVE CENTURIES OF HUMAN ACTIVITY
The first vocation of the monastery is spirituality: it is occupied by Augustinian monks It was also the occasion for a group of people who prayed for the princes who were buried in the church. For more than a century, the Augustinians from Lombardy in Italy occupied the place. They were replaced by Augustinian monks from France in 1659. . It was at this time that the monastery of Brou, now under the protection of the king of France, took on the title of royal.
During the French Revolution in 1789, the monks were expelled from the monastery. Saved from demolition in 1791 thanks to the conviction of a local deputy, the monument is registered as property to be preserved at the expense of the nationalmost fifty years before the first list of historical monuments. It became in turn a prison for refractory priests a cavalry barracks, a begging depot and a hospice for the insane.
In 1823, the royal monastery of Brou became a place of worship again when the diocesan major seminary was established. The community occupied the monastery for nearly a century, counting up to 142 seminarians.
In 1906, one year after the law of separation of the Church and the State, they left the monument. The monastery definitively lost its religious function.
© Franck Paubel
A cultural place for more than 100 years
At the beginning of the 20th century, the royal monastery of Brou is opened to the public and transformed into a cultural place.
It became what we know today with the installation of the The museum was founded in 1922. Its collections of paintings, sculptures and decorative arts allow visitors to discover more than five centuries of art history, from the Middle Ages to contemporary creation...
Elected " favorite monument of the French Voted "France's favorite monument" in 2014, the Royal Monastery of Brou is a place where cultures and arts have been blending since the 16th century. This unique site of heritage and history is now a cultural place in its own right.
Entirely redeveloped in 2018 and 2022, the tour route offers a permanent dialogue between the monument, the works on display and the female figure of its founder.
At the crossroads of plastic, visual, literary, performing arts, music and architecture, the monastery gives life to a lively and unexpected, all year round, for young and old.
It is a place that can be discovered and rediscovered, because the
is different every time with, always, this feeling ofaudacity and novelty!
© Marine Bontemps
To the origins of Brou
The sector of Brou is one of the oldest districts of the city of Bourg-en-Bresse. On the site of the monastery, a temple and a village of potters existed in Gallo-Roman times.
During the Merovingian period, this site was given a funerary vocation and a necropolis was built. Burgundian . A small priory The Benedictine priory was founded around the year 1000 by the bishop of Macon, Saint Gérard.
It is undoubtedly in the XIIth century that a parish church was built and priory dedicated to Saint Peter. It was rebuilt and enlarged in the 15th century, before being razed in the early 16th century to make way for the present church. From this priory church, some architectural remains remain, a statue of Saint Peter and two sets of stalls: you can discover them in the first cloister and the chapter house of the monks' cloister.
To help her husband recover, Marguerite de Bourbon, the mother of Philibert le Beau, vowed to restore the priory, but was unable to fulfill her vow. It is this vow that Marguerite of Austria took over. But as the daughter and aunt of an emperor who is herself buried here, she fulfilled it in a particularly ambitious way.
© Jean-Luc Paillé