Abbey of Saint-Pierre de la Couture () was a Benedictine monastery in Le Mans. All that survives of it is the abbey church and some of the abbey buildings; the latter date to a rebuild between 1760 and 1775 and are now used to house the prefecture for Sarthe. Dating to the 11th century, the monastery was considered one of the most powerful in western France before the French Revolution.
History
Foundation
The founder of the abbey was Saint Bertrand, Bishop of Le Mans from 586 to 616, who founded the monastery "de la couture" in honour of Peter and Paul. The name couture or was chosen because of the cultivated fields that surrounded the monastery at the time. From the 10th century onwards, the term took on the meaning of : worship of God. At that time, the city's inhabitants had taken refuge behind the defensive walls. Only the suburb of Saint-Nicolas was then a modest place to live on this side of the Sarthe. In local folklore, the Archangel Michael is said to have come down to earth to indicate the precise place of creation in Saint-Bertrand. The rural area was then located about 600 metres south of the end of the Gallo-Roman wall. The monastery quickly amassed a significant amount of land, starting in Maine with donations from local lords. But these possessions spread throughout France. The most famous were located in Bordeaux, Provence, Burgundy, and especially in England. Of these foreign possessions, the abbey always kept a symbol. The coat of arms of the abbey has always taken the double colours of the fleur-de-lis of the Kingdom of France and the three English lions.
A small town was formed between the suburb of Saint-Nicolas and the abbey. This is now the centre of the city. However, the hyper-centre, as we know it (Place Saint-Nicolas and not Place de la République) remains several hundred metres from the abbey.
However, the 9th and 10th centuries were not to the advantage of the religious. They were subjected to the law of the new secular lords, the Counts of Maine and were soon attacked by the Normans. The abbey was partially destroyed and its cultural possessions were burned. Gauzbert rebuilt the abbey of Saint-Pierre de la Couture in 990, supported this time by Hugues I, Count of Maine, in agreement with Avesgaud, Bishop of Le Mans. Although attracted by the Cluniac movement, Gauzday did not depend on it. However, like the Order of Cluny, La Couture tried as much as it could to guarantee its independence from the lordly and even episcopal powers. Above all, the bishopric of Le Mans, which was one of the most powerful in France because of its size, and also because of its financial capacities. The abbey tried, like many others, to place itself under the direct authority of the Pope. The abbey had to face a significant number of trials against local lords. If donations were important for the abbey at that time, it was mainly because it recovered land lost during conflicts or usurped by secular lords. With these recoveries, the abbey rebuilt the abbey church in the 11th and 12th centuries.
Around 1010, Geoffroy, Lord of Sablé, gave the monks of the Abbey of La Couture in Le Mans the church of Solesmes and its attached farm, thus creating Solesmes Abbey.
At the beginning of the 12th century, the abbey owned 30,000 hectares of land, this time collected in the Le Mans region. In 1288, Charles, Count of Anjou and Maine, grants rights to hold two fairs each year to the monks of LaCouture, on their domain of Moullins. It also has a number of other priories. During an outbreak of the plague which struck Le Mans in 1515, Dom Michel Bureau sent part of the community to shelter in Volnay Priory and took the others, including all the dignitaries to Moullins. Couture became the most powerful abbey in Maine and one of the largest in the whole kingdom. In 1399, abbots of La Couture were endowed with the dignity of bishops, with mitre, ring and cross. The churches of the city and the suburbs are subject to the authority of the abbey. But the Hundred Years' War soon caused much destruction to the abbey and its many priories. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the periods of English occupation were the most destructive. L'Épau Abbey was burned down to prevent the enemy from taking refuge there. However, it is also during this period that its autonomy is strengthened.