Montmartre Abbey

You are standing on a hill with a history that predates the famous basilica by centuries. In the twelfth century, King Louis the Sixth and his queen, Adelaide of Maurienne, established the Royal Abbey of Notre Dame de Montmartre here. It was a prestigious Benedictine convent for noblewomen, built atop the ruins of an older Merovingian church and priory. For over six hundred years, this institution acted as a powerful landowner, managing estates and collecting rents, which effectively embedded monastic authority into the daily life of this area long before it became a neighborhood of artists and cabarets.