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Origin and history

The Abbey of Blanchefosse is the former church of the Cistercian Abbey of Bonnefontaine, founded in 1152 by Nicolas de Rumigny, Lord of the Second Crusade. The latter offered the estate to Saint Bernard de Clairvaux, promoter of the Cistercian order, who sent twelve monks there under the direction of Guerric d'Igny. The religious buildings were erected at the beginning of the thirteenth century after the clearing of the land, and the abbey received relics from Saint Caprais, martyr of Agen. The site, strategic between Flanders, Burgundy and Champagne, suffered conflicts like the Hundred Years' War, where the monks, impoverished and in rebellion, violently opposed a canonical visit in 1364.

In the 17th century, after the ravages of the Wars of Religion and the Thirty Years' War, the great home of the monks and its outbuildings were rebuilt in a classical style, marking a period of renewal. The reform of the Stricte Observance was introduced in 1664 by Prior Bertrand Tissier. The French Revolution rang the abbey: the monks left in 1790, and the estate, which was declared a national property, was sold to Charles Nicolas Truc. The present ruins are the result of progressive destruction by the buyers, who recovered the stones to sell them, as Charles de Montalembert observed in 1839.

Today only remains of the southern transept and arches of the 12th century nave, as well as the damaged girder of Nicolas de Rumigny. The large house, the 17th century outbuildings and the abbot's pavilion, with brick masonries and white stone, testify to the architectural evolution of the site. Ranked a historic monument in 1926, the abbey is surrounded by streams and woods, in an isolated setting near the forests of Rumigny. Its history reflects the political and religious tumults that marked the Ardennes, between monastic prosperity and post-revolutionary decline.

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