The vestiges

The Maubuisson estate is home to the remaining buildings classified as historic monuments of the former ‘Notre-Dame-La-Royale’ abbey. The ten-hectare wooded park offers visitors the chance to discover archaeological remains. A stream, a drainage canal and a reflecting pool enhance the walk and bear witness to the hydraulic engineering of the Middle Ages until the 18th century.

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  • The chapter house

    The chapter house was the abbey’s centre of decision-making. Every morning, after the first communal prayers (matins, lauds and prime), the nuns would gather there to listen to a chapter from the Rule of Saint Benedict or the martyrology. The nuns would deliberate on practical matters such as general management and the purchase and sale of land, settle disciplinary issues and discuss the admission of new novices. The chapter, which is largely open to the cloister gallery, allows the lay sisters and novices, who ‘have no voice in the chapter’, to attend the meetings without ever participating in the debates. The doors to the parlour and the sacristy are recent additions. Originally, the chapter communicated only with the cloister

  • The parlour

    The parlour is the only room in the convent buildings where the nuns are allowed to talk to each other. The room’s unique acoustics mean that they do not need to raise their voices to be heard. Until the 18th century, the archives were kept here (medieval charters, account books, receipts and plans, now kept in the Val d’Oise Departmental Archives).
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©CDVO
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  • The passage to the fields

    The passage between the cloister and the garden opens onto the nuns’ hall to the north. The opening to the south, giving access to the parlour, is more recent. The words ‘Bureau central’ (central office) and ‘Bibliothèque’ (library) written on the walls are traces of the abbey’s occupation by soldiers during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

  • The sisters’ hall

    The purpose of this room is not clear. We know that the novices did their manual work here.

  • The latrines

    As in many Cistercian establishments, monumental latrines drain waste water into the canal. This building comprises collective latrines on two floors. On the ground floor, adjoining the nuns’ hall, the low latrines had eight seats. On the first floor, adjacent to the dormitory, there were thirty-eight seats in two rows.

The latrine building rests on twenty 14-metre-high arches. The floor is fitted with glass panels, allowing visitors to see the canal, which carried waste water from the latrines and kitchens.

The abbeys of Maubuisson and Royaumont are the only ones in France to have preserved the remains of these sanitary facilities.

  • The culvert

    This covered passageway, known as the Ponceau, was built on the orders of Catherine d’Orléans Longueville, Abbess of Maubuisson from 1652 to 1664. It was not covered until 1680 by Louise Hollandine of Bavaria, the Princess Palatine, who succeeded her. It was saved from destruction by the Baroness de Rothschild, who had it restored with the money intended for its demolition in 1946.


This passage allowed the nuns of the monastery to reach the vegetable garden, the Clos du Roi, separated from the abbey by the old Méry road (rue Alexandre Prachay). The nuns could thus come and go without being seen by civilians travelling along the Méry road. These vegetable gardens and orchards, called the Clos du Roi in reference to Saint Louis, were sold during the Revolution. Today, houses and villas have been built on this plot of land between Rue de Maubuisson and the top of Rue Maurice Dampierre. The upper part of the Clos is riddled with stone quarries, which were used in particular for the construction of Maubuisson Abbey.

  • The abbey church of Notre-Dame-la-Royale

    Located to the west of the exhibition rooms, the abbey church was demolished at the end of the 18th century. A few remains, including a column with a capital and pillar bases, still mark its location.

  • The treasure room

    Located above the sacristy, the treasure room was used to store the relics and precious objects owned by the abbey, particularly in two closed niches whose door frames are still visible. These may have been gifts from abbesses, royal families or wealthy donors.  The ‘treasure’ itself is known from various inventories, notably that of May 1463, drawn up by the Abbot of Chaalis. Over the centuries, the treasure was altered and depleted as a result of wars, pillaging and theft. The last inventory, dated 1792, and the auction records from 1793 allow us to trace the various objects in the treasure until they were scattered.  Five objects have survived: the Maubuisson cup (late 14th–early 15th century), the Maubuisson ewer, the crozier known as the Abbaye du Lys (13th and 15th centuries) and the Maubuisson crozier (13th and 15th centuries), all four of which are kept at the Lambinet Museum in Versailles. The opening Virgin of Maubuisson, which was on display for a time in the church of Saint-Ouen l’Aumône, was stolen in 1973.

Today, the treasure room displays archaeological and religious objects from the abbey or closely related to it.

Only accessible during European Heritage Days.

  • The dormitory

    With the exception of the treasure room, the first floor has completely disappeared. Rebuilt in the 1980s on a completely different model, it now houses the administrative services of Maubuisson Abbey, artists’ studios, a documentation centre, company offices and co-working spaces. In 1951, the chief architect of Historic Monuments had the remaining building, which was badly damaged by water seeping in from the upper terrace, covered with a concrete frame. This roofing work was completed in 1954. The property then belonged to the Œuvre Israelite des Séjours à la Campagne (Jewish Organisation for Country Stays), chaired by the Baroness de Rothschild.

  • The guest house

    The last major construction in Maubuisson, the house of Saint-Charles, known as the ‘guest house’, built under Abbess Charlotte Colbert de Croissy around 1750, still stands today in the form of a castle, where the original part can still be distinguished despite extension work in the 19th and 20th centuries. This residence was intended to accommodate high-ranking visitors coming to see their children or on private business. The house has belonged to the Rothschild family since 1926. It is currently occupied by the OPEJ (Organisation for the Protection of Jewish Children).

  • The great medieval building

    The barn, built in 1240, is located on the outskirts of the Maubuisson estate. The name ‘Grange aux dîmes’ (tithe barn), which appeared in the 20th century, is actually incorrect, as Cistercian monks were not allowed to collect tithes, which were taxes reserved for parish churches. It was in fact the barn of the farm, which no longer exists today. The imposing building was originally divided into three naves, but the north aisle no longer exists following a collapse in 1830. Thirteenth-century stone columns, topped with capitals with drooping leaves, support a largely original oak framework dating from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. On the outside, buttresses reinforce the building. Originally, the entrance was through a monumental porch framed by two pillars on the eastern façade and a pedestrian door in the north gable (still existing).

On the north gable, a polygonal turret housing a spiral staircase was added during the Hundred Years’ War in the second half of the 14th century to allow soldiers to watch for the arrival of the English.

After the Second World War, the Rothschild family, who had owned the estate since 1926, converted the barn into a synagogue, which remained in use until the 1980s.

Open to the public during European Heritage Days and guided historical tours.