The Royal Abbey of Fontevraud stands on a 14-hectare site in the Loire Valley, between Anjou, Touraine, and Poitou.
This is one of the biggest monastic complexes in western Christendom. A mixed order, headed by an Abbess, the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud was founded by Robert d’Arbrissel in 1101. The Abbey’s protectors were the Counts of Anjou, followed by their descendants, the Plantagenet kings of England.
The abbey church contains the recumbent effigies of Plantagenet King Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine, their son Richard the Lionheart, and Isabelle of Angouleme.
The Abbey had four priories: