Clairvaux

Clairvaux, a village of France, on the Aube, 10 miles SE. of Bar-sur-Aube, is remarkable as the site of the once famous Cistercian abbey, founded in 1115 by St Bernard, who presided over it till his death in 1153, when he was buried in the church. The unwholesome swampy valley became the smiling Clara Vallis under the efforts of the monks, who at Bernard's death numbered 700; afterwards the founder's ascetic rule was disregarded, and the simple row of cells gave place to a palatial monastery, whose church was reckoned a masterpiece of architecture, but was destroyed at the Restoration. The abbey, which at one time possessed a revenue of 120,000 livres, had been suppressed at the Revolution, and the extensive buildings are now used as a central prison for the thirteen eastern departments of France.