In front of the Castle, _turn to the left and, after the marshes, to the
right, without crossing the railway by the level-crossing, seen in the
foreground of the photograph on the next page_. (_The road to be
followed is the one, the beginning of which is seen on the left of this
photograph._)
_Continue along G. C. 17, which follows the railway on the right, cross
the latter by the level-crossing_, after which the tourist comes to the
completely devastated =Villers-Cotterets Wood=.
Numerous deep dug-outs were made in the slopes on the left. A few
hundred yards after the level-crossing there is an enormous shell
crater, caused by the explosion of an ammunition shelter. On the right
of the road flows the Saviéres, on whose banks fierce fighting took
place in June-July, 1918.
[Illustration: CORCY CHURCH.]
[Illustration: CORCY.
In the background: Ruins of the Church. The road to Villers-Cotterets is
the one going to the left on the photograph.]
On arriving at =Longpont=, the Abbey comes into sight; in front of the
latter, _turn to the left, then into the first street on the right_,
which leads to the Square. On the left is the Abbey; on the right, the
fortified gate.
[Illustration: THE OLD FORTIFIED GATE OF LONGPONT ABBEY.
In the background: Villers-Cotterets Wood and the road leading to
Villers-Cotterets village.]
The =Abbey=, which belonged to the Cistercian Order, was founded by _Raoul
IV._, Count of Crespy, for which pious act he was absolved from
excommunication. It quickly became a flourishing institution, the
number of monks at the end of the 12th century being two hundred. In the
14th century, during the Hundred Years’ War, this number had fallen to
thirty, while on the eve of the Revolution there remained only fifteen.
[Illustration: LONGPONT ABBEY, SEEN FROM THE GRANDE PLACE.]
The Abbey contains the ruins of a magnificent Gothic Church, the
foundations of which were laid in 1131, under the Count of Crespy, but
which was only finished in 1226. It was consecrated in 1227, in the
presence of King St. Louis and his mother. The fine gabled façade and
the walls of the nave, with their massive abutments and graceful flying
buttresses, are still standing, as is also the transept. The porches are
intact. Of the apsis and chapels, only the walls and columns remain.
A 13th century fortified gate, surmounted by four turrets with pointed
tops, is all that remains of the walls that formerly protected the Abbey
from the bands of marauders which roamed through the country.
[Illustration: LONGPONT ABBEY CHURCH, SEEN FROM THE STREET LEADING TO
THE FORTIFIED GATE.]
[Illustration: FRONT OF LONGPONT ABBEY, OVERLOOKING THE PARK.