The jury of the first edition of the landscape award for ecological heritage selected the Propolis association’s project to rehabilitate and restore the landscaped grounds of the Abbaye de Bonnecombe, located in the French department of Aveyron in Comps-La-Grand-Ville.
An exceptional example of French heritage founded in 1167, the Abbaye de Bonnecombe is owned by the Rodez and Vabres diocese. It was home to monks of the Cistercian, then Trappist orders until 1965.
The site has been unoccupied since 2017, when the Propolis Association began investigating the creation of a training centre on environmental and societal issues on the site of the abbey. The project involving the Foundation consisted in supporting the restoration and enhancement of biodiversity in the surroundings of the abbey, as a background for training students.
Unfortunately, the Propolis Association has not been able to obtain a long lease from the diocese, so the project has not gone ahead.
