Is there buied treasure at Villeneuve Les Avignon?

Hi Hardluck

It is necessary to remember that during French revolution (1789-1792), many ecclesiastic had to escape France due to the hostility of the revolutionaries to their respect. Where went the Carthusian monks between 1792 and 1883?
Below a short review concerning Villeneuve-lez-Avignon.

Before 1353 :
In 1084, the man who will become Saint Bruno retires with 6 companions to the Massif de la Grande Chartreuse. Together, away from the world,

they will combine loneliness and community life, contemplation and the accomplishment of material tasks. It is a new form of monastic life

coming into being. Its rules* will be set in 1127. The order of the Carthusian monks is born. From the very start, the community splits into

two groups: the fathers live a life of prayers in their cells, whereas the brothers take the charge of the necessities of a domestic life.

This will remain a characteristic of the order.
Other Carthusian Monasteries will also see the light; Valbonne, Bonpas ?
We notice with no surprise that they are outside the walls. Villeneuve-l?s-Avignon remains an exception due to its indivisible history from the papacy in Avignon.
Before 1353, La Chartreuse of Villeneuve les Avignon was not yet a monastery; it was a place inhabited by the Faith: cardinal Etienne Aubert?s palace, the residence of a great churchman.
In 1353, the owner of the premises becomes the Supreme Pontiff under the name of Innocent VI and donates all the buildings to the order of the Carthusian monks.

*Saint Bruno did not leave any written rule to the Brothers he led to the D?sert de Chartreuse in 1084 but only two letters about the contemplative life of loneliness. Throughout two generations, the way of life which he initiated only sustains itself through custom and example. Around 1120, however, the need of a written rule became evident and Guigues, prior of the Carthusian monastery, put in writing his ?Consuetudines Cartusiae? (Carthusian monk customs), adopted in 1128.

1353-1372: FIRST CHARTREUSE
 
Upon his election to the papacy in 1352, Innocent VI decided to install his palace a Chartreuse, out of loyalty, friendship and gratitude to Jean Birel, general of the Carthusians, but also will mark a symbolic return to rigor, after magnificence of Clement VI which he had succeeded. The Bubble Foundation of Chartreuse, in 1356, establishes a community that includes, besides the twelve monks, a prior, fourteen brothers, two nurses, two clerks and nine domestic and dowry goods sufficient for maintenance . It will take several years to build this assembly comprising, east of the palace and the consistory, a large cloister said the cemetery (the monks will be buried until the Revolution), surrounded on three sides by 13 houses of monks, a small cloister told the symposium, including the chapter house and a church with its bell tower and sacristy, now extinct. The church was consecrated in 1358 are added in subsequent years, some domestic premises necessary for the life of the community laundry, called here Bugada, and bakery. The whole is enclosed by high walls. All this work will be funded on the pope's personal cassette. In 1360, Innocent VI, providing for his imminent death, erected a chapel in the south of the church, to house his tomb.

On 12 August 1362, the Pope grants privileges to several bubbles Chartreuse. It's free of charges, taxes and gratuity payable to the Papal Court and the payment of tithes for all its present and future possessions. The same year the king of France Jean-le-Bon also exempts the Chartreuse of all taxes on wheat, wine and other commodities. It will be imitated by his successors, who will confirm or extend turn privileges of the monastery of Charles V in 1380 to Louis XV in 1724, all the kings of France and go, often during their time at Villeneuve-les Avignon, manifest the generosity of the royal power.

On September 12, 1362, Innocent VI died. He had expressed the desire to be buried in the church of the Chartreuse. The architect Bertrand Nogayrol, sculptors Thomas and Bartholomew de Tournon Knight realized his tomb located in the Chapel of the Holy Trinity. After a brief visit to the church of Notre Dame des Doms, the pope's body is installed on November 22, 1362 in the presence of the king of France. The tomb was identified in 1798 among the property of Villeneuve meriting protection under the laws of the Year IlI on objects of historic or artistic interest. State property, the structure was therefore remained in its original chapel for its part sold to a farmer from the area had turned into surrender, leaving the local deteriorate at an alarming point. It is within this context that Prosper M?rim?e, inspector of historic monuments rediscovered the tomb September 11, 1834, made the following year to make its removal to the chapel of the Hospice City. In 1959 Innocent VI finds the tranquility of the chapel in the church.

1372-1649: SECOND CHARTREUSE THE TIME OF RICH SHIELDS
 
The monastery has lost its founder in 1362, but his nephews, all cardinals will continue his work for ten years. In 1365, the palace burned Aubert Innocent VI, in circumstances unknown.

Pierre Selva Montirac decides to install in its place a second monastery, thanks to the generosity of his gifts, which earned him the nickname earned second-founder of the Charterhouse, the number of fathers is doubled. They are now 24. We must construct new cells: they will gather around a new cloister, the cloister of Saint John, or upper cloister which was built around 1372. The church is also too small. It creates a new span flanked by chapels Saint Bruno and Saint Michel. This new building will be dedicated to the brothers, while fathers are gathered in the old part of the building.

Pierre Selva Montirac is not the only family member to be generous Aubert: Cardinal Priest Audouin Aubert, bishop of Ostia and Cardinal Priest Estienne Aubert, bishop of Carcassonne have also wanted to continue the work of Innocent VI, bequeathing large sums of money or rebuilding a portion of the building destroyed by fire. This shows how the fate of the Chartreuse is inextricably linked to the protection of this illustrious family. The generosity of Aubert allows the community to become rich. Other large local families follow his example and donate at the Chartreuse of land and buildings. Thanks to these significant revenues that the monastery may give alms to the poor and control artists (1) the most prestigious works that adorn its walls.

In the early seventeenth century, the heritage of the monastery is considerable not only extend its land around the monastery (Avignon, ?les du Rhone, Pujaut, Aramon Sorgues ...) but until Venaissin or Pont Saint Esprit, where it owns priories. - In 1603, the Lyons Claude Montconis began drying up ponds and Rochefort Pujaut on which the Carthusians had the right to fish. In compensation, the monastery receives land that will form an area of 500 acres of good land. Three farms are located there: St. Hughes (1616), San Bruno (1653), and Saint Anthelme (1681). A century later, there were 542 sheep and 213 sheep. The influence of the Chartreuse is remarkable. It receives novices as illustrious clergymen as well as scholars, and bringing relief to the poor in times of famine, pestilence or flood.

1649-1973 : PEAK, WEALTH, REVOLUTION AND LAICIZATION
 
It is 1649. La Chartreuse has reached its peak; it has become the richest in France.
From 1603, Claude de Montconis, from Lyon, sets about the draining of the ponds in Pujaut and Rochefort on which the Carthusian monks had fishing rights. In compensation, the monastery gets lands which will form a property of 500 hectares of good soils. Three farms are set up:

Saint Hughes (1616), Saint Bruno (1653), and Saint Anthelme (1681). One century later, there will be 542 sheep and 213 ewes. That being the

case, one can see how, during the 1709 famine, La Chartreuse could feed 2000 people.
It hosts almost 100 people among whom 40 fathers, 30 lay brothers and almost the same number of domestics and workmen. The wealth of the community can be seen in the gold and the marbles; the sculptures and the paintings which embellish the walls. Four years earlier, the project of a monumental gate had been mentioned then abandoned. It will finally be achieved in 1649. Its baroque luxuriance is most certainly not very carthusian, but it reflects the taste of the time. In 1660, Louis XIV will go through it with great ceremonial at the occasion of a visit at la Chartreus with the company of a numerous retinue.
At the dawn of the 18th century, except for the chapel of the deaths which soon will be built in the cemetery cloister, only the premises remain to be built, for an economic function rather than for a religious one. Barns, guest quarters, a wood storeroom, the hospital and the domestics? kitchen will be built; the Saint-John Fountain is recovered with a dome. Outside, the revolution turmoil breaks out.
Three dates suffice to tell the collapsing of a four-century world :
- February, 14th, 1970: deletion of the religious orders.
(between May 1790 and January 1791, the carthusian fathers are questioned about their intensions. Thirty of them wish to observe their vows and follow their Prior, Dom Joseph de Camaret, to Pernes. They will never come back at La Chartreuse. The other ten go back to a secular life. The community is dissolved.
- end of 1792: departure of the Carthusian monks.
- May, 27th 1793: the monastery is put up for sale
The lands and buildings belonging to La Chartreuse are declared national property, divided into 17 lots and sold by auction in Beaucaire the 1st Thermidor of year II (July, 19th 1794.) The ?paintings, marbles, woodwork and frescos which were in the church and the adjoining chapels, the sacristy and the refectory? are excluded from the sale. To this enumeration need to be added the 8500 volumes of the library, the medal cabinet and other riches that are scattered and which, for the great majority, disappear. Only the inventory, made in 1791, gives us the measure of the artistic and artisanal goods La Chartreuse abounded with.
From 1834, Prosper M?rim?e is infuriated by the outrages the mausoleum of Innocent VI had undergone. During an inspection tour of the historic monuments, he discovers the extent of the damage: ?barrels, olive tree trunks, enormous ladders are piled up into the cubbyhole where the mausoleum is situated? the owner of the tumbledown has smashed the base down, in order to turn the place into a wardrobe.? The report he dresses up is a tremendous acknowledgment; it is also an alarm shout, a call addressed to the State requesting it to take on its responsibility in the preservation of the patrimony. Three quarters of a century will be needed for his call to be heard. In 1909, the architect Jules Formig?, hands in his ?report on La Chartreuse de Villeneuve-l?s-Avignon? to the Ancient Monuments Commission. It is a
scrupulous, well-documented inventory which calls for an action. The State thus begins this action which lasts almost three quarters of a century as well, and can be summed up by three words: buy out, restore, rehabilitate. Parcel after parcel, the State buys out lands and buildings to the three hundred private owners who were occupying the place. The restoration process, then, can start and continue until today.

From the Book "Saint Bruno and the Order of Chartreuse"

Chartreuse de La Vall?e-de-Benediction at Villeneuve, near Avignon, in the diocese of Nimes, Gard department, was founded by Etienne Aubert,

Pope as Innocent VI, June 2, 1356. This richly endowed the Pope Chartreuse and placed under the protection of St. John the Baptist, in 1362,

she took with her consent, the name Valle de Benediction.
The major benefactors of the monastery were Etienne Aubert, Bishop of Carcassonne, nephew of Innocent VI, Pierre Salva de Montirac, Cardinal of Pamplona, the title of St. Anastasius, another nephew of the Pope; Audoin Aubert, Bishop of Paris , then of Ostia, Cardinal of the title of St. John and St. Paul, also nephew of Innocent VI, Guy Bologna, Cardinal of the title of St. Cecilia, who consecrated the church of the Monastery, Jean de Neufchatel, bishop Tulle, Cardinal of the title of the Four Crowned Saints, Jean de la Grange, Bishop of Amiens, Cardinal of the title of Saint-Marcel. The Carthusians of the Valley-of-Blessing suffered much during the Wars of Religion. In 1633, they founded the Chartreuse de Marseille. Deleted by the decrees of the National Assembly in 1790, the Convent of Villeneuve was not sold until 1792 and not abandoned religious at that time.

Good reading and don't dream a lot this night.

regards

Luc


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Hello All

Once again thanks for the very interesting posts.

Luc that is an interesting bit of history you have posted. 30 of the Monks went with the Prior, Dom Joseph de Camaret, to Pernes.

Which Pernes is that?

Perne les fontaine  a medieval town of fountains down in the South of France?

Or Is it the Pernes (or Pernes-en-Artois ) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France?

The count of Wassier. In spite of the emigration of the count abroad, in 1792, the French Revolution did not strip the family of their property rights in Pernes in the Calais region, as they were of Belgian nationality.

Perhaps Dom Joseph de Camaret and his followers went the there seeking protection eventually going over the border into Belgium?

That might explain where this alleged priest obtained information or documents about the treasure of  Chartreuse de Villeneuve  in Belgium?

Excellent detective work Delmonte as your comments suggest a connection with Louvain is very interesting.

The Leuven or Louvain Charterhouse (Kartuize Maria-Magdalena-onder-het-Kruis op de Calvarieberg or Chartreuse Sainte-Marie-Madeleine-sous-la-Croix) (c. 1489/91-1783)

The Cathusian chapter house seems to be gone by 1783?

Perhaps the documents or information from Dom Joseph de Camaret ended up at the catholic university? But the library was destroyed in 1914 by the Germans.

Even so I feel this mysterious visitor in 1925 must of came across documents about the treasure somewhere?

Or perhaps this Mysterious visitor obtained information about the treasure when the catholic library was looted and burned in 1914. Somehow he came across documents left by Dom Joseph de Camaret?
 
Dom Joseph de Camaret and his followers of course most likely were sent to different monasteries. Dom joseph de Camaret ended up at Tarragona in 1811.

The evidence does seem to lead us to Belgium.

Gee this is getting interesting.

Hardluck


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Hello Luc

You have an interesting point there with Perne Les Fontaines. It was about 24km away. But surely they would of been driven out from there by the revolution?

I wonder what happened to the order there. The same what happened all over France I  imagine. And from there Dom Joseph Camaret and his followers fled to Spain.

I read somewhere that most of the Carthusian Monasteries was closed in Spain around 1835. Why I do not know.


Now for another brain teaser 

When or what year did the church tower fall down in the Carthusian Monastery of Villeneuve les Avignon?

Thanking you both in advance.

Hardluck

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Hello All

Thank you Delmonte for your post.

I might of found some thing both you Luc may find interesting. The old map with the arrow pointed to priors residence. I was never sure of the authenticy of the document?

In fact I know very little about that map or its origins obtained from a Cambridge college professor.

Now if the tower was destroyed between the revolution 1792 and 1836?

Now if you look at the painting dated 1836. the picture is of course looking from a different direction but it does show the corner of the Monastery church. Strange enough without the tower.

With this we could possibly conclude that the tower was destroyed some time between 1792 and 1836?
You will notice part of the map showing the church the fathers prayed in. You will see the tower illustrated. Does this mean this document was drawn before the destruction of the church tower?

If this is so then it is quite possible that the document was drawn some time around the monks were evicted from the monastery?

Interesting possibility?

Hardluck



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I don't know if it is a real fact and I d'idn't verify but I have heard of : in one of his predictions Nostradamus wrote : the treasure of
 
Jerusalem chased by Trajan "sleep" between the Pont du Gard and the Rh?ne. Those who will find it will never see again the light of day ".

An other thing : there is a very big and long underground excavated by the Templars between Beaucaire and Saint-Gilles , two important "commanderies" of their order. This underground passes under the Rh?ne.

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Hi Hardluck,

There is an error in my post about a " big and long underground..." it's not  between Beaucaire and Saint Gilles du Gard, but between Saint Gilles du Gard and Moustiers Sainte Marie ( Alpes de Haute Provence). That was said by Mr Canonge who said also about Nostradamus and the treasure of Trajan.

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