See Marmoutier Abbey (Tours)

Marmoutier Abbey (Tours)

Marmoutier Abbey, also known as the Abbey of Marmoutier , was an early monastery outside Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France. In its later days it followed the Benedictine order as an influential monastery with many dependencies....

 for the former abbey in Tours

Tours

Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...

.

Marmoutier is a commune

Communes of France

The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

 in the Bas-Rhin

Bas-Rhin

Bas-Rhin is a department of France. The name means "Lower Rhine". It is the more populous and densely populated of the two departments of the Alsace region, with 1,079,013 inhabitants in 2006.- History :...

 département in Alsace

Alsace

Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...

 in north-eastern France. The origin of the place is the former Marmoutier Abbey

Marmoutier Abbey (Alsace)

Marmoutier Abbey, otherwise Maursmünster Abbey, was a Benedictine monastery in the commune of Marmoutier in Alsace.-History:The first foundation here, either in the late 6th century, or by Saint Leobard in 659, was a community of Irish monks under the Rule of St. Columbanus...

, of which the abbey church still serves as the parish church. It is a commune

Communes of France

The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

 in the Bas-Rhin

Bas-Rhin

Bas-Rhin is a department of France. The name means "Lower Rhine". It is the more populous and densely populated of the two departments of the Alsace region, with 1,079,013 inhabitants in 2006.- History :...

 département in Alsace

Alsace

Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...

 in north-eastern France.

History

In 590 St. Leonhard, a disciple of Columbanus

Columbanus

Columbanus was an Irish missionary notable for founding a number of monasteries on the European continent from around 590 in the Frankish and Lombard kingdoms, most notably Luxeuil and Bobbio , and stands as an exemplar of Irish missionary activity in early medieval Europe.He spread among the...

, founded a benedictine monastery

Order of Saint Benedict

The Order of Saint Benedict is a Roman Catholic religious order of independent monastic communities that observe the Rule of St. Benedict. Within the order, each individual community maintains its own autonomy, while the organization as a whole exists to represent their mutual interests...

 which later was named after the abbot Maurus who modified it in the 12th century imitating the style of Hirsau

Hirsau

Hirsau is a district of the town of Calw in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, located in the south-west portion of the country, about two miles north of Calw and about twenty four miles west of Stuttgart.-Town:...

. The church dates from this time. Above all the cloister flourished during the 14th century. In 1792 it disinitegrated during the French Revolution.

Jacob Frey, a writer, lived in Marmoutier from 1545 as town chronicler and notary.

Sights

The church of Marmoutier Abbey

Marmoutier Abbey (Alsace)

Marmoutier Abbey, otherwise Maursmünster Abbey, was a Benedictine monastery in the commune of Marmoutier in Alsace.-History:The first foundation here, either in the late 6th century, or by Saint Leobard in 659, was a community of Irish monks under the Rule of St. Columbanus...

 from the 11th century holds a pipe organ by the organ builder Andreas Silbermann

Andreas Silbermann

Andreas Silbermann was a German organ builder, who was involved in the construction of 35 organs, mostly in Alsace...

.