Fleury Abbey stands at Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, about 22 miles (35 km) southwest of Orléans. The article gives its founding as about 640, per tradition, and credits Leodebaldus, abbot of St-Aignan, as traditional founder. It names no architect. The abbey held the relics of Saint Benedict, though monks of Monte Cassino dispute the transfer. A fire in 1026 destroyed the earlier church.
The article describes the present church as a Romanesque basilica with a great west tower completed in 1218. It is about 300 feet long, with a transept of 140 feet. The choir and west tower have round arches, while the later nave has pointed arches and a ribbed vault. The choir holds the tomb of Philip I of France. A porch on fifty columns is called the tower of Abbot Gauzlin.
Protestant troops plundered it in the Wars of Religion. The Congregation of St Maur revived it in 1627, and the church became a historic monument in 1835.
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