St Winnoc's Abbey, Bergues, Benedictine monastery ruins in Bergues, France

Saint Winnoc Abbey in Bergues is a ruined Benedictine complex. Its surviving remains are a massive rectangular tower of mottled brick and stone, with two tall arched openings near the top and a large pointed-arch recess below, and a separate round stone tower capped by a tall dark conical roof with a small spire. A low stone wall and metal fence stand at the base.

Winoc, a monk from Saint-Bertin, founded a monastery at Wormhout around 695 and died there in 717. After Viking raids destroyed it, Baldwin II of Flanders had a church built in lower Bergues around 900 and brought Winoc's relics there. Between 1022 and 1028 Baldwin IV the Bearded established the Benedictine abbey at Bergues, and its church spire was erected in 1031.

The abbey's name derives from Winoc, the Breton monk who led the first monastery at Wormhout and died in 717. In 1038 the relics of the English saints Oswald and Itisberghe were brought here by the monk Balgar, and in 1058 those of Saint Levinne were added. The abbots kept the custom of being invested at Saint-Bertin, and the bishops of Thérouanne made a solemn visit on their accession.

The remains stand apart on flat grassy ground: a massive square brick-and-stone tower on one side and a separate round tower with a tall dark conical roof on the other. A low stone wall and metal fence run at their base, with trees behind. The two structures are seen from outside; there is no surviving gate to pass through.

The abbey's name survives in two Latin-derived forms, Winociberga and Winoci mons, which also gave the town its name Bergues. The site was ruined by fire in 1083, reportedly started by weavers, and rebuilt in 1106 with help from Saint-Bertin Abbey, the papal legate Bruno and Clémence of Burgundy, wife of Robert II of Flanders.