Royaumont Abbey was founded in 1228 by the young Louis IX and his mother, Blanche de Castille, and enjoyed major influence during the Middle Ages. Sold during the French Revolution, it was transformed into a textile factory and the dismantled church was used to build a workers' village. In 1869, the abbey regained its original vocation and welcomed the novitiate of the nuns of the Sainte-Famille de Bordeaux, who restored it in the neo-Gothic style. In 1905, Jules Goüin, president of the Société de Construction des Batignolles, acquired the old monastery. His grandson, Henry Goüin, decided to open its doors to artists and intellectuals. In 1964, the project continued in the form of a foundation, the Fondation Royaumont pour le Progrès des Sciences de l’Homme (Royaumont Foundation for the Progress of Human Sciences). Listed as a Historical Monument in 1927, Royaumont Abbey has successively become a Cistercian monastery, a court abbey, an industrial site, a novitiate, a war hospital, and a country residence before becoming a cultural center.