SILVACANE (Sauvecanne). — An ancient Cistercian abbey in the archdiocese of Aix in Provence.
It was founded by Raymond de Baux between 1132 and 1157; it was suppressed by Pope Eugenius IV in 1443, and its goods were transferred to the metropolitan Chapter of Aix. The abbey church has recently been restored externally; it had three naves, reinforced externally by numerous buttresses; a square tower rises above the transept; the main apse is adorned with a fifteenth-century ogival niche. Today, however, it has been reduced to a farm, as has the attached cloister, and the chapter house has been converted into a stable.
BIBL.: Bernard D'Hyères, Hist. de l'abbaye cisterc. de Sila vacane en Provence d'après les documents, Aix 1891; Cotincau, I, coll. 3037-38.