Abbaye de Cadouin

Founded in 1115 in the heart of the Périgord Pourpre, in the Dordogne, the Abbey of Cadouin became a major place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages thanks to a precious shroud said to have wrapped the head of Christ. The relic drew crowds of pilgrims to this stage on the route to Santiago de Compostela for centuries, until a 19th-century study revealed its later origin.

The abbey church, with its austere Romanesque façade typical of Cistercian architecture, contrasts with the adjoining cloister, rebuilt in the 15th and 16th centuries in an exceptionally ornate Flamboyant Gothic style for a monastic building. The monastic buildings, of fine golden Périgord stone, have kept the harmony of their medieval proportions, offering one of the most memorable heritage visits in the area between Bergerac and Sarlat.

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