Hautvillers Abbey
— — vines below, the small church above.
Not only on a wall.
“A small village on a chalk slope above the Marne, north of Épernay. Vines below the houses, a single church at the top of the village. Dom Pérignon kept the cellar here for forty-seven years and is buried behind the altar, in a plain stone slab set into the floor. The newer abbey buildings belong to Moët & Chandon now and are not open to visitors, but the church is, and the wrought-iron signs above almost every door in the village name what each family makes.
Hautvillers Abbey, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
Hautvillers sits on a chalk hillside above the right bank of the Marne, about 6 kilometres north of Épernay, in the Marne department. The abbey was founded in 650 by Saint Nivard, then archbishop of Reims, as a Benedictine monastery. It became one of the great scriptoria of the Carolingian period; the Ebbo Gospels were illuminated here in the early ninth century. The monastery was suppressed during the French Revolution. Moët & Chandon bought the surviving abbey complex in 1823 and owns it still. The village sits within the Champagne Hillsides, Houses and Cellars UNESCO World Heritage listing, inscribed in 2015.
The surviving abbey church, now the parish church of Saint Sindulphe, stands at the top of the village. Dom Pérignon, cellarer at Hautvillers from 1668 until his death in 1715, is buried behind the high altar in a plain stone slab set into the floor of the chancel. When the abbey was suppressed during the Revolution, the church was kept as the parish church and the cloister buildings sold. Inside, a single nave and a small bell tower sit within what remains of the older monastic complex. The chalk subsoil beneath the village belongs to the same Cretaceous shelf that gives the wider Champagne region its long, slow-ageing wines.
The Saint-Sindulphe church is open to visitors most days and admission is free. Dom Pérignon's tomb is the dark stone slab set into the floor immediately behind the altar. The Moët & Chandon abbey buildings next door are a working winemaking office and are not open to the public, though Moët offers tours of its main Épernay cellars by booking. The village of Hautvillers itself is known for its painted wrought-iron signs above many of the doorways, each naming the trade or vintage of the family inside. Most visitors arrive by car from Épernay, six kilometres to the south.