Saint-André-des-Ramières is a hamlet in the commune of Gigondas, on the left bank of the Ouvèze river. It is the heart of our agricultural business.
It owes its existence to a priory of the Abbey of Montmajour (near Arles), placed under the name of Saint-André in the 7th century. The settlement of nuns from Prébayon (whose ruins lie some 10 km away), which suffered terrible floods in 962, led to the creation of a lay community around their monastery from the early 13th century onwards. Probably in the middle of the 12th century, the community came under the direction of the Carthusian monks. The Carthusian monastery and village were plundered and left in ruins during the Wars of Religion at the end of the 16th century. The beginning of the 18th century marked the end of the nuns' presence. From then on, Les Ramières came under the rule of the bishops of Orange, who made it one of their residences until the French Revolution.
"The country house of the bishops of Orange was a pleasant residence in the heart of a fertile valley. Thick woods surrounded it with tall trees and a belt of young coppice. The horizon was wide. The view stretched over the next hills, where villages balanced on the slopes and vines still mingling with olive trees evoked the villages and hillsides of Umbria. A river, usually rather lazy, but on stormy days swollen with a hundred streams, ran through it and watered, when it wasn't flooding it, an estate where many farmers worked."
Almost nothing has changed at Saint-André-des-Ramières!
In the 10th century, the nuns of Prébayon transferred their community to Saint-André-des-Ramières.
The origins of Prébayon are intertwined with legend and tradition, which trace the establishment of a monastery of Benedictine nuns on the Prébayon mountain back to Saint Radegonde in Merovingian times. Violent storms are said to have ruined the monastery and prompted the community to move to Saint-André-des-Ramières during the High Middle Ages. The Abbey of Montmajour is said to have ceded this ancient priory, which it owned near Gigondas, to the diocese of Vaison.
‘The prelate Artemius led his noble visitor, Germilie, a relative of Saint Radegonde, to Prebayon, situated a league from Vaison, today in the territory of Séguret. A year later, in 611, this corner of the world, squeezed between 3 mountains that in winter intercept the sun's rays and in summer stop the breeze that would temper the stifling heat, received five young virgins who professed to live there under the rule of Saint Césaire’.
‘This noble monastery where the Carthusian virgins
are completely virtuous in their white habit
Is at the end of a large wood among shrubs
Where the Ouvèze spreads its waters abundantly.
It is there that night and day they make their prayers
And we call it Saint-André-des-Ramières.
It is said that they were once at Prébayon,
A very dreadful place, washed by the waters of the Trignon.’
Joseph-Marie de Suarès (1599-1677), Bishop of Vaison
Saint-André-des-Ramières was occupied by nuns from 963.
In 1145, the nuns of Prébayon asked to join the Carthusian Order. This was the birth of the first female branch of this order. This decision to move towards greater solitude was supported and guided by Jean d'Espagne, monk and prior of Montrieux, who gave the nuns of Prébayon a copy of the Chartreuse Customs. From then on, Saint-André-des-Ramières ceased to be an abbey and became the Chartreuse de Saint-André-des-Ramières, the Carthusian nuns having renounced their abbatial dignity.
The influence of this first female branch was significant, since it was from this branch that the nuns who formed the communities of several Carthusian monasteries left.
The nuns adopted a more cenobitic way of life (monastic life in community) than that of the Carthusian monks (no individual cell, night services recited but not sung, except on feast days, daily refectory). As Saint-André-des-Ramières did not comply strictly with the requirements of the Carthusian rule, the Chapter General excommunicated the nuns in 1292, then expelled them from the order in 1336. Although the monastery was definitively detached from the Carthusian order, the nuns retained the habit and some of the Cartusian customs.
In the 16th century, the monastery of Saint-André-des-Ramières recognised the Prince of Orange as its sovereign and paid homage to him; the Prince of Orange contested the right to elect the abbess and made appointments himself. Several princes, following in the footsteps of Emperor Sigismund, who is said to have offered a fragment of the Holy Thorn, visited the monastery and left signs of their generosity.
In 1563, the monastery was burnt down by Protestants during the Wars of Religion.
From 1567, the nuns developed agricultural activities at Saint-André-des-Ramières and introduced vines.
The plan to abolish the monastery, supported by the French court, which wanted to use the income to create a seminary in Orange, finally came to fruition in the middle of the 18th century. The last bishops of Orange were granted the property in the episcopal mense and made the former monastery their country residence.
The relaxation of monastic rules led Louis XV, on February 19, 1734, to decree the suppression of the monastery, confirmed by the papal bull of Clement XII, on December 10, 1735. The estate was then transformed into a country residence for the last two bishops of Orange, who embellished and transformed the convent into a château, becoming Château Saint-André-des-Ramières.
The estate was sold during the French Revolution and passed into private hands. In 1929, it was acquired by the Rey and Veyrat families. Since 1999, the Rey family have been the sole owners. In 2017, the acquisition of the château by the Rey family led to the historic reunification of the estate.
"The estate was one of the largest. When, in 1791, the district of Orange divided up and sold the land, it comprised, according to the official report, 600 acres of arable land and 1,800 acres of woodland. But this list is incomplete. Some of the land had already been sold, and neither the château with its outbuildings, nor the flour mill, nor the annuities paid by various farmers in money or in kind are included. The price of 460,000 francs is a good indication of the size of the estate.
« Some of the great Italian poplars, which the bishop had made into a magnificent avenue to his country house, have had offspring that have taken the place of their elders, undermined by old age or laid low by the mistral. The only reminder of these bygone days is a large cedar tree whose dark branches still stretch out near the entrance to the château. »
François-Marc Bruyère, ‘Notice historique sur Prébayon, dans le territoire de Séguret, et Saint-André-des-Ramières’, 1869
Bibliography
Vatican archives, Congregation of Avignon 14: copy of documents concerning the Carthusian monastery of Saint-André des Ramières or Prébayon, with bull of Clement IV of 1268 (copy, 17th c.)
Bruyère (Abbé), Notice historique sur Prébayon et Saint-André des Ramières, Avignon, 1869.
Dubois (Marc), ‘La chartreuse de Prébayon et de Saint André de Ramières’, Revue Mabillon, t. XXVI, 1936.
Gruys (Albert), Cartusiana. Un instrument heuristique, t. II: maisons. Paris, 1977.
Devaux (Dom A.), ‘Pour une histoire des moniales chartreuses’, Études et documents pour l'histoire des Chartreux, Analecta cartusiana, no. 208, 2003.
Olagnon (L.), ‘Un monastère féminin du haut Moyen ge : Prébayon (Séguret)’, in Études vauclusiennes, XLVIII, July-December 1992, p. 27-28.
Rochet (Quentin), Les filles de Saint-Bruno au Moyen ge. Rennes, 2013. 188 p.
Magnani Soares-Christen (Eliana), ‘Monastères et aristocratie en Provence - milieu Xe - début XIIe siècles’, doctoral thesis defended in January 1997.
Additional sources in the Vaucluse departmental archives
6 G: fonds of the bishopric of Vaison (16th-18th centuries)
1 J 747: order from the Bishop of Vaison to remedy the misconduct of nuns (1673)
4 F 3: notes by Lucien Gap on Prébayon and Saint-André des Ramières, with the text of a study that has remained in manuscript, copies of documents, photographs and a plan (1892-1900)
5 F 173: Histoire de l'ancien monastère de Prébayon et de Saint-André des Ramières, by Coulombeau (1812), handwritten copy by Abbé Jouve.
