During the first half of the 12th century, Mortemer Abbey was home to the first Cistercian order to be founded in Normandy. The abbey owes its name - which means "dead sea" - to the marshy nature of the area. The monks, isolated by the surrounding Lyons Forest, lived on what they produced, raised, fished or harvested. Of the original structure, the only elements to be conserved were sections of the wall, the rose window of the north transept, part of the inner courtyard and the cellar where the last four remaining monks were murdered during the French Revolution. Romantic souls will relish the ruins, ponds and dovecote, while those who tend towards creepy ghost stories will get a kick out of the museum of Legends and Phantoms, which depicts the frightening stories tied to the abbey's history.
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