Longpont Abbey, Medieval Cistercian abbey in Longpont, France.
Longpont Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery in the Savière valley. Of the abbey church, built between 1192 and 1227, only the main front with its empty rose window, outer walls and buttresses remain; the roof, choir and transept are gone. To the right, two 18th-century buildings around the courtyard retain one cloister gallery and Louis XIV-style wrought-iron balconies.
The monastery was founded in 1131 when Bernard of Clairvaux established it at the request of the Bishop of Soissons. It ceased to function as a religious institution when it was dissolved during the French Revolution in 1793.
The abbey's coat of arms, carved on the outer face of the 14th-century fortified gate, shows a three-arched silver bridge over a river beneath two gold fleurs-de-lis; the village later adopted the same arms. The gate's upper storey is half-timbered, and a wooden gallery from the Renaissance hangs on its inner side.
The ruins can be visited on weekends and holidays, with access provided via the Paris-Laon railway line to the nearby station. Wear sturdy footwear since the paths are uneven and parts of the site remain open to the elements.
The 14th-century fortified gate in the village has four stone-roofed turrets, not twin towers; three rest on corbels above buttresses. It holds a pedestrian and a cart doorway in pointed arches, with a machicolation opening between them, and a Renaissance wooden gallery inside. Its outer facade bears the abbey's arms, later those of the commune: a three-arched silver bridge on blue.
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