Pontigny on the way to get its luster back
The SCHNEIDER Foundation wants to give the Cistercian site its aura back…
He undoubtedly masters art and orality, the head of the foundation that today bears his surname. Or even repartee, not devoid of a touch of humour, when he is asked to give his definition of contemporary art, answering a shifted question from the audience! But you can’t trust appearances. Even if he claims to have completed his mission, the multi-purpose project that is sketching out with more certainty in the domain of the Pontigny Abbey will bear the lasting grip of François SCHNEIDER…
He knows how to speak, François SCHNEIDER! And above all to give a deep meaning to the arguments he gives in front of an audience that listens attentively to the least of the words said. Wearing beautiful, scrutinizing with interest his interlocutors who ask him direct questions at the end of a press conference that is not really one, in view of the consequent airing of political and institutional personalities who were there(!), the character from Joigny wants to shed light on a file that has caused a lot of controversy in the microcosm of Yonne: the cession of the Pontigny Abbey’s domain.
A long project ahead…
A series worthy of suspense series – but fortunately less horrific! – that offers the current digital platforms, keeping in suspense for more than two years the followers of the news of the northern landerneau of Burgundy.
A foundation positioned in water and heritage…
Headed by a foundation originally from Alsace, it appeared in the field of initiative and risk taking in December 2000 – recognized of public utility since 2005 – and which already has a number of successes to its credit, like the Centre d’Art Contemporain, hosted in the pretty village of Wattwiller.
A site that offers more than 2,500 square metres of exhibition space dedicated to the theme of water. An altruistic structural tool, also willing to help disadvantaged high school students who want to follow an educational curriculum in higher education with scholarships.
Tourism to allow Pontigny to regain its universalism…
Beyond the artistic encouragement and educational proselytism, the SCHNEIDER Foundation aims even further with the acquisition of the estate of Yonnes’s Cistercian abbey. For the tidy sum of €1.8 million transferred to the Burgundy Franche-Comté Region, who owned place until then.
This was officially confirmed in the conversational room by the master of ceremonies, François SCHNEIDER himself, during this meeting with the media (and especially many personalities!).
The entity adds another item to its already eclectic array: the development of heritage tourism. Thanks to its six thousand square meters of buildings, some of which will be rehabilitated and arranged on the nine green and wooded hectares of the estate.
A contemporary art centre before 2027…
The aim is simple: to give this jewel of Romanesque art its universalism and magnificence back. How? Once the preliminary studies and archaeological surveys will be carried out, a one-year delta or maybe a little more will be needed to analyse the site’s topography. The Foundation will then dive dive headfirst in the future in the fit-up of buildings according to the required initial layout.
And in the background a Cistercian building, a flagship of the regional heritage of more than nine hundred years!
Sold? Not sold anymore? Under what conditions? Not to mention the regular positions taken by a religious congregation which also had sights on this universal secular complex. In a nusthell, a file that did not resemble “ Life Is a Long Quiet River” (a french comedy film). Caught up like so many others by the vicissitudes of the health crisis, which gloomy prospects for the final outcome of this project…
Ten years to shine optimally…
Let’s talk about the project! It is polymorphic, sprawling, multiple. To tell the truth it is not overtaking that he surprises by his shape and ambition because similar concepts do not exist actually in the Hexagon. A country experiencing a deep economic and social crisis – a little better managed than the rest of the EU – but which is sometimes a complete intellectual decline in terms of imagination and creativity…
Seen from Yonne, that’s for sure: such a gargantuan entrepreneurial concept cleverly mixing the opening of a four-star hotel infrastructure, paired with a supposedly gourmet restaurant, the physical presence of a shop where products sold under the estate’s stamp (honey, bread, biscuits, liqueurs, etc.) and the cultivation of local products in consultation with specialists in the agricultural and organic sectors… can be slightly frightening!
The aficionados of the place will certainly have to be patient before discovering the definitive configuration, a cardinal virtue of spirituality!
If all goes as expected, the Center of Contemporary Art should be operational for the 2026/2027 season and welcoming artists recognizing themselves for such, as well as the inherent part related to the local agricultural production
At the same time, visitors – cosmopolitan tourists looking for heritage and spiritual retreats but not only – will be allowed to enjoy the comfortable surroundings of the luxury hotel complexas well as the friendly recipes that will be developed in the upscale restaurant.
A €20 million budget and 100 jobs…
On the financial front, the SCHNEIDER Foundation will inject an estimated €20 million to implement this concept. A graduated project that will take place over a decade according to its eponymous spokesman.
Around €10 million will be devoted to the renovation of the buildings, a new existence in the project. The hotel complex, comprising some fifty rooms, is estiomated to €8 million. Another €2 million will be used for the restoration component.
As for the job prospects generated by this project, they were also mentioned at the end of this very interesting meeting: a hundred jobs will be created within eight to ten years on the site.
Everything to please the political representants sitting in the front row of this conference. Including the president of the Region, Marie-Guite DUFAY, who followed the event in video. And a good way to remove doubts and fears about the real intentions of the SCHNEIDER Foundation, which is committed to bringing this secular site back to life…
Thierry BRET