Escaladieu Abbey

Escaladieu Abbey was a Cistercian abbey located in the French commune of Bonnemazon in the Hautes-Pyrénées. Its name derives from the Latin Scala Dei. The abbey was founded in 1142 and became an important pilgrimage stop on the Way of St. James en route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The abbey is situated at the confluence of the Luz and the Arros rivers near the Château de Mauvezin.

In the middle of the 12th century, a group of monks under the protection of the count of Bigorre who lived at Cabadur in the Gripp valley in the modern-day commune of Campan, near Bagnères-de-Bigorre, wanted to move to a more hospitable location and therefore establish the abbey at Bonnemazon. The abbey became the center of the expansion of southern French Cistercian expansion and founded eight abbeys in Spain and two in Gascony.