Pause Midi: Pontigny, abbaye de lumière

Our Pause Midi series will resume on September 13 with a presentation about Pontigny Abbey by Dr. Terryl Kinder.

Pontigny Abbey was founded in 1114 as a Cistercian monastery. Located in Burgundy, its influence spread rapidly to other parts of France, Italy, and Hungary. Pontigny occupied a vitally important place in the political, ecclesiastical, and architectural history of medieval Europe.  It has historical associations with Vermont’s Edmundites.

Construction of the church probably began in the late 1130s. Today the structure is renowned for its austerity and the luminous beauty of its ribbed vaults—the first Gothic element to appear in Burgundy, a stronghold of the Romanesque style. A walk through the gardens and fields within the monastic enclosure enables the visitor to appreciate the astonishing size of the cloister and church. 

In her lavishly illustrated talk, Dr. Kinder will explore the abbey’s elegant design, immense scale, and innovative construction techniques. She will also discuss her current research into the large number of masons’ marks still visible in the abbey walls and vaults.

Terryl N. Kinder is a practicing archaeologist and holds both French and U.S. citizenships. Before moving to France in 1989, she taught medieval art history in the SUNY system, then at the Sorbonne. Dr. Kinder specializes in the study of the Cistercians, a monastic order founded in 1098 in Burgundy, and she is editor in chief of Cîteaux, an international journal of Cistercian history. In her numerous articles and books, she has examined the architecture, archaeology, and land management of the 12th-century abbey of Pontigny. Since 2004 she has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Saint Michael’s College, where she teaches ancient and medieval art and architecture. She has taken some 240 SMC students to Pontigny for a summer course on “Culture and Society in Medieval Burgundy.” She is currently an adviser to the Fondation François Schneider,which purchased the Pontigny Abbey domain in 2022.

Language: English

Venue: Zoom