Le Thoronet (Abbaye Le Thoronet)

There is a store-room built on to the cloister at Le Thoronet, which, like the latter, dates from the end of the 12th C. It is a long room with ogival barrel-vaulting and arcades on the west wall. Here there are walled containers for oil, the remains of an oil-press and an exhibition dealing with the restoration of the monastery and the building activities of the Cistercians.

The stone belfry at Le Thoronet is unusual for a Cistercian church - normally only roof turrets were permitted. The masonry is impressive by virtue of the exactness with which the slabs of stone have been cut and laid; the slightly sloping saddle-roofs rest directly on the vaults. The facade does not have a central doorway - as there was no "congregation" - but merely two side doors (the left one was assigned to lay brothers).

The Le Thoronet cloister is reached from the northern side aisle. The noticeably irregular shape of its ground-plan (a trapezium with unequal sides, the longest 37m/121ft) and vertical plane is caused by the shape of the land on which it is built. The walls and vaults appear even more massive than when seen from inside the church, because of the almost total absence of any subdivisions. The history of building is also documented here in the various shapes of the ledges and vaults; the early south wing (ca.1160-1170) has barrel-vaulting, while the vaulting in the east wing is slightly broken. In the north-east and north-west corners the Gothic ribbed vaults which have been placed there are very evident. The round-arched arcades leading to the garden rest on rectangular buttresses and are filled out with a pair of rounded arches, which sit on circular pillars with simple capitals and soften the heavy impression made by the 1.50m/5ft thick wall. Here it is possible to trace the tradition of Romanesque building forms (cf. the Temple of Diana in Nîmes).

The terrace above the cloister, which is reached from the dormitorium, offers the best view across the site.

The converse building at Le Thoronet (lay brothers' building), which dates from the early 13th century, is connected to the northwest end of the cloister. On the ground floor is the refectory with a double-bayed hinged ribbed vault; on the upper floor the dormitorium with ogival barrel- vaulting. The door in the north wall led to the latrine, now in ruins, which was directly above the stream.

The nave of Le Thoronet is built with four bays and pointed barrel-vaulting; they are separated from one another by simple rectangular girders which rest on simple ledges made up of a quarter-circular bar and a straight strip. The lower arms of the transept do not form a crossing with the nave, but are merely attached to it. Set in the eastern wall of the transept, to the left and right of the choir, there are two apses, while the choir, even from the outside, appears to the eye to form a semicircle.

The transition to the Gothic style is heralded by the ogival barrel-vaulting in the nave and transept and the rising half-barrels in the side aisles, which divert the weight from the vaulting on to the exterior walls. The eastern bay of the northern side aisle, which was the first to be built, still possesses a quarter-barrel; similarly the chronological succession of the various building elements can be traced in the development and refining of the ledges.

The only subdivision on the walls is provided by semicircular articulated columns, which rest on a console at a height halfway up the arcades, as well as a perimeter ledge which marks the base of the vaulting. Light reaches the interior through a few small windows in the west, south and east walls and in the apses; the north side has no windows.

Next to the northern transept arm on the same level as the Cloister in Le Thoronet is the 3m/10ft wide sacristy and the tiny library (the Cistercians restricted themselves to only the most essential of reading matter), which, like the conventual buildings is situated at a lower level. Connected to it is the 9.5x8m/ 31x26ft chapter house, the six ribbed vaults of which rest on two free-standing pillars. The sculptures on the capitals (leaves, palm branches, volutes) represent the only building decorations in the whole complex; probably it was felt fitting not to deny a certain degree of embellishment to what was, after the church, the most important room for monastic life.

The parlatorium (speaking-room) is situated between the cloister and the monastery garden. Other buildings in the north of the site (warming-room, refectory, kitchen and monks' hall) have not been preserved, although their ground-plan is still discernible.

Following the Cistercian tradition, a staircase leads from the northern arm of the transept directly into the dormitorium, the monks' sleeping room, which is situated above the chapter house.

In the northwest corner of Le Thoronet the foundation walls of the guest house have been uncovered; in the south stands the former tithe barn.

The wellhouse on the north wing of the cloister is the only remaining example in Provence to have survived. The hexagonal building has hinged ribbed vaulting and round- arched windows and is provided with a separate entrance and exit. The fountain itself is modern.