Cîteaux

France

Also known as: Cistercium

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Latin:: Cistercium

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Cîteaux, village, site of a famous abbey in Côte-d’Or département, Burgundy région, France, south of Dijon. Founded in 1098 by St. Robert, abbot of Molesme, the abbey, largely through the activities of the 12th-century churchman and mystic St. Bernard of Clairvaux, became the headquarters of the Cistercian order, with abbeys scattered all over Europe. Only a part of a Gothic cloister and some 18th-century buildings remain of Cîteaux’s great past, the abbey having been depopulated and largely destroyed during the Revolution. The buildings were occupied again by the Grand Chapter of the Cistercian order when the abbey was restored to it in 1898.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.