Champmol Charterhouse

The full story

While the first Capetian dukes lay at rest in the abbey of Cîteaux, Philip the Bold wanted a necropolis worthy of his new dynasty: a pious gesture, but also a true political act. As early as 1378, he bought the Champmol estate, outside the walls, to the west of the town and near the Ouche. Even before the official foundation, work began to drain this inhospitable land, marshy as its name suggests. The Carthusian monks arrived in 1388, the year the church was dedicated, and the whole building work ended in 1410.

The monastery was arranged around two cloisters. The small one led to the church, the refectory and the chapter house, where the monks met. The large one served the cells of the 24 Carthusian monks. In its centre, in a basin, stood the “Great Cross”, crowned by Christ on the cross and Mary Magdalene embracing the cross. The prophets on its base still show traces of blue, red, green and gilding. In 1483, passing through Champmol, the mayor of Mons, Georges Lengherand, still described “a fine fountain” in the middle of the great cloister.

The project drew the most brilliant artists of the day: the Flemish Jehan de Marville, Claus Sluter and Claus de Werve, and the Spaniard Jean de la Huerta. On taking charge of the ducal workshop in 1389, Sluter changed Marville’s design for the portal: on the central pier, the Virgin and Child welcome the duke, presented by Saint John the Baptist, and the duchess Margaret of Flanders, presented by Saint Catherine. The three dukes were buried in the choir, but only the tombs of the first two were ever made. Near the chapel, an isolated 19 m turret holds a 102-step staircase that led to the ducal oratory. Jacob’s Well, dated 1403, with its double flight of steps, stood at the centre of the small cloister.

As early as 1772, the arcades of the small cloister were taken down: they can still be seen in the Arquebuse garden. At the Revolution, the Carthusian order was abolished. The buildings were bought in 1791 by Emmanuel Crétet, later Napoleon I’s Minister of the Interior. Many were destroyed and the works of art scattered; the dukes’ remains were placed in Saint-Bénigne cathedral. In 1833, the Côte-d’Or department bought the site and opened an asylum there nine years later, designed by the architect Pierre-Paul Petit. Its U-shaped plan, centred on the Well of Moses, recalls the former great cloister. The portal, built into a new chapel in the 19th century, and the Well were listed as historic monuments as early as 1840. The 25-hectare wooded park has held the Écojardin label since 2018.