The Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay is an early Cistercian monastery based on the ideal of self-sufficiency.The Abbey of Fontenay was founded by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in 1118. Located in a small forested valley 60 kilometres northwest of Dijon, it achieved great prosperity in the 12th and 13th centuries. Fontenay enjoyed the protection of the Kings of France but was plundered in the Hundred Year's War and the Wars of Religion. Later, its fortunes declined, and the refectory was demolished by