#cartodb

CartoDB just opened up a world of statistics for your maps.

My first attempt at a basic point map is this: monasteries destroyed during the French Revolution. There are 35 monasteries or houses represented, and you can click or hover on each point to find out a very brief history of it. All information is taken from Wikipedia and sources linked to on Wikipedia. Latitude and longitude data comes from the linked data on the monastery’s wiki page. in 1790-1794, all religious orders in France were forbidden from receiving new members, and from taking vows. Almost all assets - land, property, buildings, relics, libraries, etc. - were either seized by the state or destroyed. In a few, very rare, cases, a benefactor was able to hold on to the land. Most of these monasteries had faced previous destructions/demolitions from the Normans, Vikings, plague, and Hundred Years’ War. Most faced additional attacks when the 1901 Law of Associations was passed, which again suppressed all orders and confiscated their property. A few of these monasteries exist as tourist sites, secular buildings, or in at least one case, as an actual monastery.

It isn’t as simple as “These monasteries were flourishing for centuries and then the French Revolution totally destroyed everything!” - but it’s pretty close. Monasteries in France suffered greatly from the Frankish to the Modern era; there’s a long history of religious orders being expelled in different eras from different countries in Europe. What is startling is the calculated annihilation of religious orders and properties during the Revolution. Millenia-old monasteries, centers of learning, titanic abbeys with hospitals and medical schools attached simply vanished - practically overnight.