Editing Clairvaux Abbey (section)

=== Revolution to present day ===
{{See also|Clairvaux Prison}}[[File:Revue régionale illustrée mars 1901 100478 (clairvaux).jpg|left|thumb|The prison as it appeared in 1901]]
At the time of the [[French Revolution]] in 1789, Clairvaux had only 26 professed religious, counting the abbot, Louis-Marie Rocourt, ten lay brothers, and ten affiliated pensioners of the house; 19 of the religious and all the lay brothers were secularized.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lekai |first=Louis |date=1968 |title=French Cistercians and the Revolution (1789–1791) |journal=Analecta Cisterciensia |volume=24 |pages=86–118}}</ref> The relics of Bernard of Clairvaux were moved from the abbey church to [[Troyes Cathedral]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Our Lady of Clairvaux |url=https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-clairvaux.html |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=www.roman-catholic-saints.com}}</ref>

[[Biens nationaux|Having become state property]] according to the decree of 2 November 1789, the abbey was purchased in 1792 and converted into a glassworks, which was repossessed by the state upon its bankruptcy in 1804 and turned into a prison. This fate was not uncommon for former monasteries following the penal reforms of Napoleon, it also befell others like [[Fontevraud Abbey|Fontevraud]] and [[Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey|Mont-Saint-Michel]]. Because the abbey church was sold off as a quarry in 1812, a small new chapel was built inside the former [[refectory]] in 1828. During the 19th century, the abbey held 2,700 prisoners, including 500 women and 550 children. Deplorable conditions at the abbey inspired Victor Hugo to write his short story "[[Claude Gueux]]", based on a real prisoner at Clairvaux, in 1834.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Allan H. Pasco |date=2016 |title=Reforming Society and Genre in Hugo's 'Claude Gueux' |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5699/modelangrevi.111.1.0085 |journal=The Modern Language Review |volume=111 |issue=1 |pages=85–103 |doi=10.5699/modelangrevi.111.1.0085|jstor=10.5699/modelangrevi.111.1.0085 }}</ref> Following a reform in 1875 that required individual cells for prisoners, "chicken cages", cells measuring 1.5 x 2-meter (5 x 6.5&nbsp;ft), were installed, they remained in use until 1971.<ref name=":2" /> The abbey was in 1926 as a [[Monument historique|historical monument]] by the [[French Ministry of Culture]], but only one of the buildings, the one for the [[lay brother]]s, is medieval in origin yet erected after Bernard had died.<ref name=":4" />

Starting in the 2000s, the prison was gradually dismantled. Comprehensive restorations began in 2013, and the prison was finally shut down in 2023.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-07-10 |title=Abbaye de Clairvaux : inauguration des restaurations |url=https://www.culture.gouv.fr/regions/drac-grand-est/actu/MH-Etat/clairvaux/Abbaye-de-Clairvaux-inauguration-des-restaurations-du-refectoire-chapelle-de-la-Prison-des-enfants-et-des-amenagements-exterieurs |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=www.culture.gouv.fr |language=fr-FR}}</ref> Renovation has been underway since.

{{Commons category|Abbaye de Clairvaux}}