Abbaye Saint-Jean-des-Vignes

The abbey of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes, in Soissons, was founded in 1076 by Hugh the White. It housed regular canons following the rule of Saint Augustine. It became a major landowner, with some forty parishes under its dependence, and had about 150 religious around 1520. The abbey church was consecrated in 1478.

The parts visible today date essentially from the late thirteenth century and late Gothic: the west façade carries two unequal towers, completed between 1488 and 1495 for the first and between 1516 and 1520 for the second. At the Revolution, the monks were expelled and the site was put to military use; systematic demolition began in 1809 and the church was largely destroyed, but the towers remained standing. The abbey now belongs to the town of Soissons, and a restoration of the two towers has been under way since 2016.

← Other sites in Aisne