The abbey | ©Patrick Despoix / CC-BY-SA
In 1178, Ebbes de Mauléon founded in La Flotte a small Cistercian priory. This monastery was called Notre-Dame-des-Châteliers, and it became very prosperous.
But the English burnt it and damaged it in 1294 and 1462... then Protestants did the same in 1574.
The abbey started to sink into oblivion... Sold during the French Revolution, it was transformed into a quarry.
Nowadays we still can see refectory's walls, cloister's remnants and 15th century Gothic church ruins...