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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The abbey of Premontré, located in Aisne 20 km from Laon, was founded in 1120 by Norbert de Xanten in the forest of Voas, on land offered by Bishop Barthélemy de Jur. Two years later, the church was consecrated by the bishops of Laon and Soissons, marking the birth of the order of the Premonstrates (or Norbertins). The abbey became the seat of this congregation of regular canons, with notable architecture, including a suspended staircase (1730) attributed to Nicolas Bonhomme, architect who also worked at Saint-Martin Abbey in Laon.

During the French Revolution, the abbey was secularized and transformed into a glass factory in 1803 by the Deviolaine family, after a legal obligation to industrialise the site. The production, initially focused on champagne bottles, extended to glass glass and coloured objects. Piled during the occupations of 1814-1815, the glass factory was restored before being transferred to Vauxrot in 1826, under the impulse of Paul Deviolaine, who introduced the casting of ice.

Purchased by the department of Aisne in 1861, the abbey was classified as a historical monument in 1862 and converted into a psychiatric hospital, a function it still occupies. Only a limited space is open to the public, including cultural activities via La Corderie (managed by the Education League). The abbey thus retains a double heritage: religious as the cradle of the order of the Premonstrated, and industrial as a former royal glassworks under Louis-Philippe.

The abbey also had a prestigious list of abbots general, from Hugues de Fosses (1128) to Jos Wouters (present). Among them were figures such as Cardinal François de Pisa (XVIth century) or Armand-Jean de Richelieu (1636-1642), although the latter did not get papal bubbles. The suppression of order in 1790 marked a rupture, before its restoration in the 19th century with foreign abbots (Austria, Belgium).

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