Boulaur

Boulaur
Commune
Cistercian abbey in Boulaur
Boulaur Boulaur
Coordinates: 43°32′30″N 0°46′29″E
Country	France
Region	Occitania
Department	Gers
Arrondissement	Auch
Canton	Astarac-Gimone
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Antoine Faure
Area 1	9.03 km2 (3.49 sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	32061 /32450
Elevation	162–285 m (531–935 ft) (avg. 155 m or 509 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Boulaur (French pronunciation: [bulɔʁ]; Occitan: Bonlau) is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France.

Geography

Boulaur and its surrounding communes

Population

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1968	163	—
1975	154	−0.81%
1982	140	−1.35%
1990	126	−1.31%
1999	128	+0.18%
2009	154	+1.87%
2014	162	+1.02%
2020	187	+2.42%
Source: INSEE

Abbey

Boulaur Abbey, or St Mary's Abbey, Boulaur (French: Abbaye Sainte-Marie de Boulaur), is a monastery of Cistercian nuns. It was founded in the 12th century as a priory of the Order of Fontevraud that was abolished during the French Revolution. Cistercian nuns reinstated it at the end of the 19th century but were expelled under the Associations Act of 1901 (the Waldeck-Rousseau Law). Monastic life was definitively restored in 1949. In 2011 the community had about 30 nuns. In 2022 they declared their intention to resettle the Trappist Abbey of Notre-Dame des Neiges.

See also

• Communes of the Gers department

Further reading

• Histoire de l'ordre de Fontevrault, 1100-1908; by the Religious of Sainte-Marie-de-Fontevrault-de-Boulaur (afterwards at Vera in Navarre). 3 vols. Auch, 1911–15