The cloister garden of the French abbey of Fontevraud, the largest monastic complex in Western Europe, will be reopened on Sunday, 24 March, on the inauguration of the Festival of Holy Week, which will have as its theme this year “The Pasch in the churches of the East”. Numerous events have been promoted by the cultural Centre for the West of France; they are aimed at turning the abbey into “the Villa Medici of the digital age”. In February 2002 the abbey of Fontevraud became a centre for the use of multimedia applied to historical monuments. Cinema, music, digital images are just some of the arts at the basis of a project for the new technologies applied to the cultural heritage. The project is also being publicized by a quarterly magazine, a new Internet site (http://www.abbaye-fontevraud.com/), and a TV programme (“Roots and Wings”) directed by Patrick de Carolis, transmitted on France 3. The abbey, with its 14 hectares and 4 priories, has seen the number of its visitors grow from 160,000 to 203,000 in 2001. It is a World Heritage Site designated by Unesco.
