Ancienne abbaye Saint-Vincent

English translation

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History

Monastic establishment transformed into an arsenal in the 19th century. On this site bounded by a 12th century enclosure and restored to the present day, two types of buildings remain: from the former abbey (enclosure almost complete, abbatial dwelling and guest building, large pond, several wells and all the underground structures, cellars, caves, etc.); from the former arsenal (entrance gate, powder magazine, fifteen hangars, garages, etc.). The abbey, perhaps founded as early as the 6th century, was rebuilt at the end of the 12th century: cloister, great refectory, reconstruction of the abbatial church. The church was completed in the 16th century (façade in flamboyant Gothic style, tower of the north transept) as well as: dormitory, beginning of the first abbatial dwelling - of which part of the cellars and caves remains - demolished in the 17th century. The buildings were damaged during the siege of Laon in 1594. The restoration of the abbey begins with the introduction of the Saint-Maur reform in the 17th century. Numerous works took place during the 17th and 18th centuries, until the reconstruction of the abbey in 1771 (abbatial dwelling and guest building). The abbey was converted into a military hospital in 1793, then into a house of confinement. Sold in 1797, it was demolished very rapidly: by 1810, only a church tower and the abbatial dwelling remained. The Army became owner of the property in 1876: establishment of an arsenal and construction of fifteen brick hangars with metal framework (1879-1890), entrance gate in limestone (1879), powder magazine (1880). Garages and two new hangars were built during the 20th century. The near-total disappearance of the buildings of the abbey Saint-Vincent and its transformation into an arsenal by the army make it difficult today to appreciate a famous monastic establishment throughout the Ancien Régime, whose architecture, both medieval and classical, had significant influence on the buildings of the Laonnois region.