Escaladieu Abbey

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Escaladieu Abbey was a Cistercian abbey located in the French commune of Bonnemazon in the Hautes-Pyrénées. The abbey was founded in 1142 and became an important pilgrimage stop on the Way of St. James en route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The abbey is situated at the confluence of the Luz and the Arros rivers near the château of Mauvezin.

In the middle of the 12th century, a group of monks under the protection of the count of Bigorre who lived at Cabadur in the Gripp valley in the modern-day Canton of Campan in Bagnères-de-Bigorre, wanted to move to a more hospitable location and therefore establish the abbey at Bonnemazon. The abbey became the epicenter of the expansion of southern French Cistercian expansion and founded eight abbeys in Spain (including ones in Fitero, Sacraménia, and Véruéla) and two in Gascony (Flaran Abbey and Bouillas Abbey).

The abbey was continuously inhabited by Cistercian monks until 1830 when it sold to an area family. In 1986, the abbey was purchased by the Counsel general of the Hautes-Pyrénées who undertook its restoration.