Brou Monastery

Located in the town of Bourg-en-Bresse (01), the royal monastery of Brou, which is a masterpiece of flamboyant Gothic art, was built at the beginning of the 16th century by Marguerite d’Autriche, duchesse from Savoie, in order to eternalize the love she had for her deceased husband, Philibert le Beau.

Its church with its polychrome glazed tile roof is a real princely burial. There are the tombs of Philibert II of Savoy, Marguerite of Austria and Marguerite of Bourbon. This set with finely sculpted details was designed by the best regional and Flemish artists of the time.

Near the choir, the chapel of Margaret of Austria is extraordinary with its stained glass window of the Assumption and its white marble altarpiece of the Seven Joys of the Virgin, decorated with seven niches representing the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the Appearance of Christ to the Virgin, Pentecost and the Assumption.

The old stained glass windows of the choir, the wooden stalls and the rood screen were executed by master glassmakers from Lyon and other artists. The visit of the three cloisters of the monastery (the first cloister, the large cloister and the cloister of the outbuildings) as well as the visit to the municipal museum, located in the monastic buildings where art collections are presented (Flemish and French paintings from the 15th to the XXth century, old religious sculptures, Renaissance and Bressan furniture but also Meillonnas earthenware) will delight you.