The Abbey of Beauport is located in the municipality of Paimpol (at a place called Kérity) in Côtes-d’Armor, Bretagne. From here you can find a point zero for the road to Santiago de Compostela. Founded in 1202 with the help of Alain d’Avangour and Goëlo who had appealed the canons regular Premonstratensian community installed at the Abbey of the Holy Trinity of Lucerne, in Normandy. The Premonstratensian Abbey (founded around 1120) included nearly 600 homes from Ireland to Cyprus and from Sweden to Italy. A general abbot ran with a hard hand this multinational company with a mission set by its creator, Saint Norbert, serving the parishes. To create an abbey they need money and land to build the monastery so Goëlo agreed to give to the order a ground on a bedrock between the mouth of the creek of Correc and a marshy area. They built the buildings with a Papal bull. The abbey was very prosperous until the early 18th century but after 1750 it was plundered and destroyed by the revolutionaries, then closed in 1790. Louis Morand bought a part in 1797. The rest became the property of the commune of Kerity. In 1962, it was classified Historical Monument. In 1993, the site became the property of the ‘Conservatoire du littoral’. Important restorations were conducted, the craftsmen, David Puech, Julie Malegol. Gilles Malegol, Alain Plesse, Jean-Claude Motte, took part. From the church built in the 13th century, it remains the façade, the nave under open heaven, the north aisle and the left arm of the transept. Today, the abbey is one of the major tourist places in Bretagne.
Tips
The site offers a wide range of animations, you can inquire at the local authority or the Abbey for what is happening in the period where you plan the visit.
Open every day from June 15th to September 15th from 10:00 to 19:00 and the rest of the year from 10:00 to 12:00 and 14:00 to 17:00.
