Yet another heritage site has been added to the Dordogne‘s tourist trail, as SudOuest.com reports that an Abbey built in the eleventh century has reopened its doors to visitors this summer.

The Chancelade Abbey, located in the town of the same name in the centre of the Dordogne, has been shut to the public for six years. Vital restoration work has now been finished and the historic landmark of local life has been opened to the public, allowing visitors to explore a new corner of the Perigord’s rich religious heritage.

According to SudOuest, this latest round of restoration work is just the latest in nearly half a century of dedicated care. The current leader of the association in charge of the Abbey, Katya Caignard, has inherited the work of her father Jacques Caignard, who worked throughout his life to maintain the local heritage site.

The Chancelade Abbey was first built in 1132 by the monks of St Augustine. As well as the church building itself, the Abbey features cloisters, lodgings for the monks and their visitors, several workshops, stables and a 30 by 9 metre vat used to distill wine in times past. One final addition to the picturesque site is an adjoining two hectare park that lies between the Beauronne river and flood way, offering “beautiful views” over the buildings in the Abbey grounds.

Chancelade may already be known to history buffs familiar with the Dordogne, however. In 1888 the town became briefly famous following the discovery a pre-historic skeleton found in a nearby cave shelter, its position indicating it had been given a ritual burial. At the time several people thought that it was a newly discovered predecessor to the Eskimos, though now the “chancelade man” has been identified as a Cro-Magnon.

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