Église abbatiale Notre-Dame d'Ourscamp, Gothic abbey church in Chiry-Ourscamp, France.

The abbatiale Notre-Dame d'Ourscamp is a Gothic church in northern France that now stands open to the sky with its stone walls exposed. The roofless structure retains Gothic arches and window frames that reveal its original scale and layout.

The abbey was founded in 1129 by Saint Bernard, establishing a major center for the Cistercian order in northern France. Over the following centuries, it became one of the region's most important monastic communities.

The abbey's name, Ourscamp, comes from the Latin Oscampum, recorded in the foundation charter of 1129 when Bernard of Clairvaux's secretary, Simon, established the community. The church served the Cistercian monks until the French Revolution, when the abbey was sold and dismantled; the nave walls were quarried for stone while the choir and transept survived roofless. Visitors today see the empty window tracery and the marks of the masons on the surviving piers.

Walking around the ruins to view the stone walls from different angles works best for understanding the building's size and layout. Since restoration work is ongoing, visitors should watch for barriers and move carefully to avoid active construction areas.

The abbey was sold off after the French Revolution and its church served as a stone quarry; the surviving walls are what later demolition left standing. Look for the broken stubs of the vaulting ribs on the nave piers, which show where the lost roof once sprang.