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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The abbey of Notre-Dame de Breteuil, located in the present department of L'Oise, finds its origins in a refoundation around 1030 by Gilduin, Count of Breteuil. The latter established Benedictine monks there under the direction of Abbé Évrard, giving the monastery land, a mill, vineyards and rights to several parish churches. A papal bubble of Leo IX in 1049 confirms this refoundation. In 1052 Gilduin offered the abbey the relics of St.Constauf, making the place a pilgrimage centre. The Romanesque abbey, consecrated in 1164, is enlarged by a square bell tower (1202) and an abbey house (1227), while a fire in 1171 partially damages the buildings.

During the Hundred Years War, the abbey was looted and destroyed, especially in 1356 and 1420, forcing the monks to take refuge in Amiens with their relics. The ruins were gradually restored from 1476, but the persistent conflicts (wars of Religion, Spanish incursions in 1636) aggravated its degradation. In the 16th century, a new abbey house was built (1524), and the abbey began in 1527 with the appointment of Jean du Bellay. In 1644, she joined the congregation of Saint-Maur, marking a spiritual and architectural renewal, with the visit of Louis XIV in 1646 and 1657.

The abbey was abolished in 1767, its monks transferred to Saint-Fuscien, before a brief return in 1775. A new convent building was erected between 1777 and 1790. Sold as a national property in 1791, the abbey was destroyed, while the remaining buildings (the 13th-century chapel, the 16th-century house, the 18th-century convent) became a military hospital, and then a house of convalescence ("The Oasis") in the 20th century. The chapel, classified in 1883, and the archaeological remains, recorded in 1996, bear witness to its rich past.

The abbey had eight dependent priories (including Saint-Martin de La Faloise and Notre-Dame de Pierrepont) and two houses in Beauvais and Amiens. His monastic school, famous in the Middle Ages, trained the writer Jean Wauquelin in the 15th century. The relics of St.Constauve, offered by Bishop Gervais of Belleme in 1052, attracted pilgrims until the Revolution. The abbots, appointed from 1383, marked its gradual decline, accelerated by wars and secularization.

Today, the site preserves medieval elements (dogive vaulted cellars, carved key chapel) and modern (renaissance logis, 18th century building). The floors of the ancient abbey and the fence walls, protected, recall its past hold. Owned by an association, the former monastery illustrates the architectural and religious evolution of Picardia, from Benedictine origins to its revolutionary dissolution.

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