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Origin and history

The former chapel of the Ferme des Dames, located in Chery-Chartruve, Aisne, is the last witness of a pre-showed female abbey founded in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. It belonged to a community of nuns transferred from the male abbey of Saint-Nicolas de Chartreuve in 1197, after the separation of the two groups. This displacement followed a common practice of the time, as in Saint-Yved de Braine in 1152, where the nuns were settled near the male monasteries before being autonomous.

The chapel, Romanesque style, served as a single nave abbey church and flat choir, typical of the monastic constructions of this period. The community seems to have been extinct in the 13th century, and the buildings were converted into a farm, leased by the Abbey of Chartruve until the Revolution. Sold as a national property in 1795, the farm retained its agricultural use, while the old chapel, used as a barn, was preserved despite the alterations of other buildings in the 19th century.

Ranked a historic monument in 1927, the chapel illustrates the history of women religious orders in the Hauts-de-France and their progressive decline. Its sober architecture, marked by ridge vaults and a carpented nave, reflects the pre-demonstrated austerity. The remains of the cloister, partially visible until the 19th century, recall the original Conventual Organization, which is now extinct.

The site derives its current name, Ferme des Dames, from its female monastic past. The foundation is linked to Hugues, son of Thibaud le Grand, Count of Champagne, who installed the Premontrés at Chartreuve around 1130. The Romanesque chapel, built during the transfer of the nuns to the plateau, remains the only intact element of this ensemble, bearing witness to medieval religious and agricultural life in the region.

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