The story of this place
Founded in 1101, the great Abbey of Fontevraud was unusual in being ruled by an abbess and housing both monks and nuns. It became the favoured resting place of the Plantagenets, the Anglo-French dynasty: here lie the painted stone effigies of Henry II of England, his formidable queen Eleanor of Aquitaine—who spent her last years at the abbey and died there in 1204—their son Richard the Lionheart, and Isabella of Angoulême. Their tombs are a haunting reminder that England's medieval kings were French-speaking rulers of a cross-Channel empire. After the Revolution, Napoleon turned the abbey into a prison, which it remained until 1963; restored, it is now a cultural centre and among the largest monastic complexes in Europe.