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Origin and history

The Abbey of Rest Our Lady, also called Reclinatorium B. Virginis, was founded in 1226 by Jeanne de Constantinople and her husband Ferrand of Flanders, near the bridge of Marque. Originally located in Marcq, it was transferred to Marquette in 1227 by exchange with the monks of Laon, before the nuns settled there permanently in 1236. The Abbey, dependent on Clairvaux, housed the mausoleum of Ferrand of Flanders, where Jeanne joined him after his death. It was a place of power and spirituality, linked to the diocese of Tournai.

Over the centuries, the abbey experienced violent perpetencies: looted in 1297 by the troops of Philip the Bel, it served as a prison for English nobles in 1340 during the Hundred Years War. In 1382 Charles VI stayed there before the Battle of Roosebeke. Religious conflicts also marked its history: in 1566 it suffered the iconoclastic fury of Protestants, and in 1578 an attack by the Hurlus (Calvinists) was repulsed, giving rise to a Marian legend. A chapel, erected in 1618 near the bridge, became a place of pilgrimage until the Revolution.

The 17th century saw the abbey welcoming personalities like Marie-Thérèse of Austria (1670) and serving as a refuge for nuns during wars. In 1708, during the Spanish Succession War, it was the scene of confrontations between French and Coalized. A fire in 1792 ravaged the site, violating the graves, including that of Jeanne de Constantinople. The remains, inscribed in the Historical Monuments in 2005, now reveal medieval capitals and the funeral blade of the founder, while a vicus and a Merovingian cemetery were discovered nearby.

The abbey was ruled by 38 abbesses, including Marguerite III of Bachemont (XVIth century), which partially rebuilt the site after the destruction of 1566, and Geneviève Armande-Élisabeth of Rohan-Guéméné (XVIIIth century), from an illustrious noble family. Figures such as Anne Delavaux (a Spanish soldate withdrawn from the abbey) or Michel Gosselaire (priest and historian of monasteries) were linked. The abbey, symbol of resistance and devotion, disappeared almost entirely, leaving only archaeological traces and a commemorative chapel (1925).

Its legacy persists through buildings such as the Lycée Notre-Dame d The excavations (2005–2007) exhumed medieval and ancient artifacts, testifying to the multi-severe occupation of the site, from Merovingians to Cistercians. The abbey thus illustrates the political and religious turbulences of northern France, between royal protection, wars and popular fervor.

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