Nantua abbey-church

Constructed at the end of the 11th century on the site of a former Benedictine abbey, Saint Michael’s Abbey was declared a national monument in 1907. The abbey has several interesting architectural features and houses a painting by Delacroix.
Saint Michael’s Abbey was home to the Cistercian order from its foundation until the French Revolution when it was badly damaged. It reopened during the 19th century as a parish church retaining some of its Cistercian features such as the 30m high bell tower which was reconstructed to resemble the bell tower in Cluny. One enters the abbey through an exquisite Romanesque doorway. Once inside you can marvel the gothic choir loft with its beautifully carved marble angles, magnificent vaulted ceiling and the renaissance styled Saint Anne’s Chapel. The abbey’s organ with its 2,800 pipes was built in 1845 by Nicolas-Antoine Lete and is classified as a historic monument in its own right. “Le Martyre de Saint-Sébastien” a painting by the famous French artist Eugène Delacroix also hangs in the abbey.