The foundation in 1125
Robert de Molesme is one of the founders of the Cistercian order. Together, these new monks follow the rule of Saint Benedict: withdrawal from the world, prayer, poverty and toil. Created in Burgundy in the 11th century, the Cistercian order then spread throughout Europe. The abbey of Maizières is the granddaughter of the abbey of Cîteaux because it was founded after the abbey of La Ferté.
The constitution of a Domain
The monks of the Maizières abbey live thanks to donations. The donors thus buy in a way their entrance to paradise. Some even donate entire estates such as the Maison du Petit Maizières in Beaune and a certain number of vines. Thus a large part of the economy of the Domaine de Maizières is based on wine. They notably own plots in Beaune, Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet or Chassagne-Montrachet. In the Nuiton, we can cite Vosne-Romanée. For the monks, the work of the vineyard allows them to apply the famous rule of Saint-Benoît.
From radiation to decline
Very quickly, the monks grew rich and began to enlarge their abbey. Like its church and its 15 chapels described by Abbot Courtépée in the 18th century:
The church is vast and very high, the nave a little narrow, but the choir surrounded by an ambulatory is very beautiful. The spire of the steeple, covered with slates, is 100 feet high.
In the second half of the 14th century, the wealthy monks went so far as to own an entire district in the city of Beaune.
Then comes the time of decline from the end of the Middle Ages. The Hundred Years War, the Black Death, the Wars of Religion will ravage Burgundy and especially its abbeys. A witness recounts a looting caused by poor and starving Burgundians in 1595:
At 3 o’clock in the morning the carabinieri scaled the walls of the abbey, broke down the doors of the church, of the rooms of the abbot and of the monks, or seized and took away all the furniture which was there, the ornaments of the church, took seeds and wines from the abbey and several villagers, took the cattle in quantity.
Maizières Abbey today
At the end of the 18th century the monks still owned many vines in Beaune, Savigny, Pommard, Volnay, Blagny, Puligny and Meursault. The Revolution of 1789 sounded the death knell for the abbey. At that time, there were only nine monks left, whereas there were around fifty in the Middle Ages and around twenty in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Since the Revolution, the buildings that have remained standing have passed through the hands of different owners.