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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The priory of Binson, founded in the middle of the 11th century, was first attached to the Canons of Soissons before being entrusted to the Benedictine monks of Coincy by Thibault de Champagne. Consecrated to St.Peter, he was quoted as early as 1077 for an annuity of twenty sous. A leprosy was associated there, mentioned in 1182, 1222 and 1352, before its abolition in 1697 by an edict of Louis XIV. The priory became a farm under the commende, sold as a national good at the Revolution, then bought by the church factory of Châtillon.

In the 19th century, the 12th century chapel, classified as a historical monument in 1922, was restored by successive donations: acquired in 1839 by the Count of Verdonnet, it was offered to the Archbishop of Reims in 1858, then to the diocese in 1866. Destroyed during World War I, it was rebuilt between 1928 and 1931 by Bishop Luçon and the Betheleem Society. The Priory became a seminary of the White Fathers in 1895, teaching philosophy and theology.

From 1930 to 2018, the site hosted a Salesian boarding school, applying Don Bosco's pedagogy. Among his notable figures, Urban II, a future pope, would have been a prior, while the chapel housed the relics of Saint Posenne, who came from Ireland. A 15th century Givet Blue Stone Funeral Block commemorates Guillaume de Châtillon and his wife Aliénor de Montigny, local lords linked to Jeanne d'Arc and the Hundred Years War.

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