Abbey of Saint-Cybard

The Abbey of Saint-Cybard was a Benedictine monastery located just outside the northern city walls of Angoulême.

Former entrance of the abbot's lodgings

Recesses and holes for timber in the remains of the refectory walls

According to Gregory of Tours in the Historia Francorum (VI, 8), the monastery was founded by Saint Eparchius in the sixth century. Little is known about the institution after its founding until 852, when King Charles the Bald confirmed a series of gifts to the abbey made by Abbot Launus, who was also the bishop of Angoulême.^[1]

The Abbey suffered along with other monasteries and cities of the region during the Viking raids of the ninth century, being sacked in 875.^[2] It adopted the Benedictine rule in 938.^[3] Between 1075 and 1087 Count Fulk of Angoulême handed Saint-Cybard over to the Cluniac abbey of Saint-Jean-d'Angély. While Saint-Jean's abbot was to appoint the abbot of Saint-Cybard, it was not until 1098 or 1099 when the monks of Saint-Cybard were forced to accept the arrangement.^[4] This relationship ended in 1161.^[5]

In 1568, during the Wars of Religion, Protestants seized Angoulême and destroyed the monastery. There now remains only the north side of the abbey church along with sections of the chapels located in the northwest corner of what was once the cloister.