A little history of Mont-Dieu charterhouse
And also
The tops
Carthusian order advocate for their monks a life of work, prayer and silence. Well, they enjoyed the quiet forest from Ardennes! Two men founded the monastery in 1132: Renaud de Martigny, bishop of Reims and Odon, abbot of Saint-Rémi of Reims.
They looked for a quiet place, far from human activities. The place was called Mont-Boson, and was perfect! They immediately renamed it Mont-Dieu ("God Hill")...
Come on, follow me... First buildings were raised in 1132 and the church completed in 1145. In 1140, the mighty and famous Bernard de Clairvaux visited the place, then pope Eugene III in 1148 or Thomas Beckett in 1164. High society, good God!
The abbey became famous and prosperous. But after wars of Religion’s destructions, in 1562, prior dom Morel launched the reconstruction: a new cloister was born, flanked by 26 cells, each one with a private garden!
In 1616, they rebuilt the church, extended the refectory, the library. The abbot church and the cloister were destroyed during the Revolution, when the abbey was sold and transformed into a jail.