ABSTRACT
Although the documentary records of the Limousin abbey of Grandmont are awash with forgeries and dubious legends, they are nonetheless accurate in attributing the role of patrons of the abbey to Kings Henry II, Richard and John. Pipe Rolls record the despatch of lead for the roof from Newcastle in 1175–77, and interest in Grandmont was shown by the kings’ seneschals between 1192 and 1214. The abbey buildings no longer survive and the recent excavations were complicated by numerous reconstructions. However, we can at least be confident that the monastic church had a long and narrow aisleless nave and a large apse. The following paper will argue that the church was not built in a specifically ‘Angevin’ manner, but was related to both local and international ascetic trends. Two other buildings within the diocese of Limoges will be discussed: the mother-church of the Order of L’Artige and the Cistercian abbey church of Bonlieu. In its turn, Grandmont is said to have provided a model for the smaller houses of the Order, all of which resemble one another, whether they are in England or in Languedoc. Built at the beginning of the 13th century, they represent a type of ‘tardorromanico’ – the term here not intended pejoratively.
