What is the name of the orphanage where Coco Chanel spent her childhood?

The orphanage where Coco Chanel spent her childhood was Aubazine Abbey in central France.

After Chanel’s mother died in 1895, when Gabrielle was 11, her father sent her and her sisters to the convent at Aubazine. The religious community ran an orphanage for abandoned and orphaned girls, providing a strict, frugal environment governed by discipline and routine.

Chanel remained there for about six years. She learned to sew during that period, a practical skill that helped launch her early work as a seamstress and later supported her career in fashion. The abbey’s austere setting also became part of the mythology surrounding her design language, including her interest in black-and-white contrasts and simple geometric forms.

A common mix-up is the name: Aubazine Abbey is also known in English as Obazine Abbey, while the orphanage itself was operated by the convent’s religious community. Chanel later gave differing, more glamorous accounts of her childhood, but biographies generally place her at Aubazine after her mother’s death.