ANCIENNE ABBAYE D’ANIANE

ANCIENNE ABBAYE D’ANIANE

In 782, Witiza, better known as Saint Benedict, founded the Aniane monastery. The abbey was badly destroyed during the Wars of Religion.
In 1663, it became part of the parish of Saint-Maur and the monastery was painstakingly rebuilt until work ended at the onset of the French Revolution.
A national asset, the abbey was turned into a textile mill then sold to the state in 1845 to be used as a prison.
In 1885, the prison was turned into a juvenile detention centre. The institution continued as a juvenile detention centre until the order of 1945 came into force. This required the creation of Public Institutions for Supervised Education. Aniane was awarded this status in 1953 and vocational training became its focus.
Following its closure in 1998, the premises were abandoned. In 2010, the Hérault Valley Community of Municipalities bought the abbey so it could be protected and prosper, mainly through excavation campaigns led by the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research).