Abbey of Notre-Dame des Dombes

Abbey of Notre-Dame des Dombes stands at the edge of the village of Le Plantay, in the flat, pond-dotted countryside of the Dombes, a landscape shaped for centuries by thousands of man-made fish ponds. Built as a Trappist monastery in the mid-1800s, it later passed into the hands of an ecumenical Catholic community, and it remains one of the more unusual religious sites to visit in the Ain department.

Why was a monastery built here?

The project began in 1858, when the bishop of Belley pushed for monks to settle in the Dombes, hoping their presence would help lift local villages out of the poverty and recurring fevers linked to the region's marshland. Roughly forty Cistercian monks from the abbey of Notre-Dame d'Aiguebelle, further south in the Drôme, answered the call and moved onto the site in October 1863 under the leadership of the community's first abbot. The abbey church itself was designed by the same architect responsible for the Notre-Dame de Fourvière basilica in Lyon, which explains the stark, luminous style of the interior, lit through stained glass rather than heavy stonework.

What did the Trappist monks actually do there?

Beyond prayer and farm labor, the monks set about draining the marshy ground around Le Plantay and expanding fish farming in the surrounding ponds, gradually reshaping the local economy. The community also became known for its own food production, including a chocolate specialty sold under the abbey's name. Its most dramatic chapter came during the Second World War: monks hid roughly 700 tonnes of military equipment on the grounds and sheltered people wanted by the occupying forces, including Frenchmen dodging forced labor, Jewish refugees, and other foreign nationals. Two monks died as a result of this resistance work, and one of them was deported to a German concentration camp, where he died in the spring of 1944.

Who runs the abbey today?

As the Trappist community aged and shrank, the monks handed the monastery over in September 2001 to the Chemin Neuf Community, a Catholic movement with a strong ecumenical bent that welcomes Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox Christians alongside Catholics. The change kept the abbey functioning as a living place of prayer rather than turning it into a museum piece, while its red-brick buildings and quiet, marsh-edge setting remain much as earlier generations left them.

What can visitors see on site?

Visitors are free to walk through the abbey church, a small oratory dedicated to the monks of Tibhirine, and a modest icon gallery, and to browse the community's shop for goods made on the property. On certain dates, guided tours cover the monastic buildings and the working farm, giving a closer look at the rhythm of daily life inside the community and its long relationship with the Dombes landscape. The surrounding area also rewards a slower visit, with footpaths running past the ponds that define this corner of the Ain.

Frequently asked questions

When was the Abbey of Notre-Dame des Dombes founded? The decision to build it dates to 1858, and the first monks moved in during October 1863.

Who lives in the monastery now? Since 2001 the site has been run by the Chemin Neuf Community, an ecumenical Catholic community open to Christians of several denominations.

Can the abbey be visited? Yes. The church, the Tibhirine oratory, the icon gallery, and the abbey shop are open to visitors, and guided tours of the monastery and farm run on selected dates.

Why is the surrounding region called the Dombes? It is a historic area of the Ain department covered in thousands of artificial fish ponds, a landscape the monks themselves helped develop through drainage and pond farming over the decades.