Built in a small mountain village, 30 km south of Lake Geneva, in the département of Haute-Savoie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, the abbey complex of Abondance was founded in the 12th century by the canons of Saint Augustine from the Abbey of Saint-Maurice d'Agaune. The church with adjoining cloister and convent buildings are still intact. In the 17th century, the site was occupied by Cistercian monks who remained there until its suppression in 1761. It was added to the list of national historical monuments in 1875. Although many 15th-century painted cloisters are still preserved in Italy, in France they are quite exceptional and that of Abondance stands out as a rare expression of the late Gothic style in Savoy. Built between 1330 and 1354, it was frescoed with a cycle dedicated to the Life of the Virgin (probably originally made up of twenty scenes), painted in around 1430 by a workshop similar in style to Giacomo Jaquerio, one of the greatest exponents of Gothic painting in the Duchy of Savoy. Of the sixteen remaining scenes, those best preserved on the east and south sides portray: Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds, Circumcision and Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, the Flight into Egypt, the Wedding at Cana. The entire north side was destroyed by fire in 1728 and all that remains of the west side is a vaulted bay in the south-west corner. The cloister is also notable for the original sculptural apparatus still present, of which the portal of the Virgin, who appears in the tympanum seated in majesty with the Child in her arms, is the most outstanding and finely crafted example. All the keystones of the bays are also sculpted with symbols of the zodiac and the work of the months, likewise the capitals of the columns adorned with plant or geometric motifs.