the cloister garden

The Cloister Garden

	© Jérôme Johnson

Questions may remain about the existence of a medieval garden in the Cistercian cloisters during the Middle Ages, but about the presence of water there, which the monks used for drinking and for ablutions and washing, there is no doubt.
Water captured from a spring three kilometres away was channelled to a small Gothic pavilion adjoining the Cloister Gallery at Royaumont. In medieval times, the galleries were covered over by a lean-to roof and their tracery windows resembled those at Royaumont, which were restored on the basis of recent archaeological finds.
At the end of the 19th century, the nuns planted a garden made up of four symmetrical grass plots with a basin at the centre to symbolise the Garden of Eden with its four rivers.
In 1912, the Goüin family, which owned the Abbey, commissioned a new garden for the Cloister by the celebrated landscape architect Achille Duchêne*. He transformed the existing garden into a charming French garden with minimalist lines of boxwood and small conical yew trees surrounding an octagonal basin. The Abbey’s first devotees included many wounded soldiers cared for there during the First World War.
Listed as a Historic Monument in 1948, the Abbey has now been completely restored.
 
The French Garden was laid out in 1912 by landscape architect Achille Duchêne.
 
In 2010, the Cloister Garden has been renovated with the support of the Île de France Region’s Agence des Espaces Verts (green spaces agency).

 
*Achille Duchêne (1866–1947) an admirer of André Le Nôtre, resurrected the traditional French garden. His work includes the restoration of the Champs-sur-Marne and Vaux-le-Vicomte gardens.

Geysir Ouest-Lumière, a perpetual fountain, 2010

	Geysir Ouest-Lumière - œuvre permanente © Ouest-Lumière

Combining Baroque strength and Cistercian sobriety, the Geysir Ouest-Lumière focuses the energy of the earth.

Inspired by a celebrated Icelandic geyser, it can be seen as the manifestation of the creative energy generated by every human being on Earth, a form of liberation through the flow of water – magical water according to the Royaumont Abbey residents.

The spectacle is one of joyous release, symbolising the common creative impulse made accessible to everyone through the activities of the fictional Ouest-Lumière artistic power generation and distribution utility and its President for Life Yann Toma.

They supported the restoration of Achille Duchêne’s garden

Motralec supports the Geysir Ouest-Lumière, a permanent work by Yann Toma, through in-kind sponsorship. Motralec, a Val d’Oise trading and service company, offers expertise in electric pumps and motors. Striving to promote the region’s cultural resonance through its support for the Royaumont Foundation, Motralec contributed to the creation of Geysir Ouest-Lumière, a contemporary work by Yann Toma, by providing in-kind sponsorship.  
 

 
Biodiversity conservation and gardens have been a focus of the GDF SUEZ Group’s partnership programme for the past 10 years. The Royaumont Gardens constitute an outstanding example of the projects it supports.

GDF SUEZ is proud to be a sponsor of the Royaumont Abbey Cloister Garden, an outstanding heritage site.
GDF SUEZ has endeavoured for a decade now to conserve the heritage and to make it available to the public as part of its sponsorship  programme.
The Group strives to preserve biodiversity and gardens – the heart and soul of sustainable development – by supporting activities focused on nature, education, culture and the arts.
The sponsorship programme of the GDF SUEZ Group, one of the world’s leading energy companies, is part of its corporate citizenship policy.