The origins of Hautecombe lie in a religious community which was founded about 1101 in a narrow valley (or
combe) near
Lake Bourget by
hermits from
Aulps Abbey, near
Lake Geneva. In about 1125 it was transferred to a site on the north-western shore of the lake under Mont du Chat, which had been granted to it by
Amadeus III, Count of Savoy, who is named as the founder; and shortly afterwards it accepted the Cistercian Rule from
Clairvaux. The first abbot was Amadeus de Haute-Rive, afterwards
Bishop of Lausanne. Two daughter-houses were founded from Hautecombe at an early date:
Fossanova Abbey (afterwards called For Appio), in the
diocese of Terracina in
Italy, in 1135, and San Angelo de Petra, close to
Constantinople, in 1214. It has sometimes been claimed, but has often been disputed, that
Pope Celestine IV and
Pope Nicholas III were monks at Hautecombe. The abbot Anthony of Savoy, a son of
Charles Emmanuel I, was also buried there in 1673. He and his queen,
Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies, are buried in the Belley chapel, which forms a kind of vestibule to the church. Some 300 statues and many frescoes adorn the interior of the church, which is long, with a transept wide. Most of the tombs are little more than reproductions of the medieval monuments. In 1826 the Cistercians resettled the abbey from
Turin, but the Italian monks soon left, and were replaced by others from
Sénanque Abbey, who remained until about 1884. In 1922 the premises were taken over by the
Benedictines of
Priory of St. Madeleine in Marseilles. The benedictine monks left in 1992 for
Ganagobie Abbey in the
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, primarily to get away from the increasing tourist flow. The buildings are now administered by the
Chemin Neuf Community, a
charismatic Catholic group with an "
ecumenical vocation". ==Notes==