Building: We focus our attention
on Fulk III, Count of Anjou. After his death he was sometimes
referred to as Nerra, i.e. ‘le Noir’ or ‘the
Black’. Fulk Nerra was born in 972 as the son of Count
Geoffrey I of Anjou and his first wife Adelaide of Vermandois.
He became Count of Anjou in 987, at the age of 15. He married
twice: first to Elisabeth, daughter of Burchard I of Vendome,
and in the year 1000 to Hildegard of Sundgau (964-1046). It
is said that he was a violent man but also that he had a ‘pious’
character. He put his wife to burn on the stake, wearing her
wedding dress, when he found out about her adultery. A few
days later his city was hit by a fire. The people and also
he himself considered this to be a punishment from God. Afterwards
the Count made several pilgrimages to Jerusalem. In total
he made four journeys: in 1002, 1007, 1008 and 1038. He died
on his way back from the fourth.
He ordered the building of more than one hundred castles,
donjons and abbeys for the protection of his neighbourhood.
This includes the Abbey of which we show the church. The church
was built in 1004 and was inaugurated in 1007. The Count of
Anjou died in 1040. He was laid in a grave inside the church.
