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Origin and history

La Prévoté de Favières, located in Sergy in the department of Aisne, is a former monastic land estate dependent on the abbey of Saint-Médard de Soissons. Its existence is attested for the first time between 711 and 715 thanks to a donation made during the reign of Dagobert III. This site, positioned on the road from Fère-en-Tardenois to Dormans, was along the brook of Favières and in the 14th century constituted the richest estate of the abbey.

During the Hundred Years War, the provost was looted by British troops and abandoned by his staff. A report prepared in 1365, kept in the Vatican, details the losses suffered and asks for an intervention by the bishop to obtain a reduction of the royal taxes. The current remains include arcades forming a gallery hall linking a 13th century chapel with a residential building, as well as a large hall. The chapel, disused before the Revolution, lost its vault and was modified by an external staircase.

The architectural complex, although partially destroyed and redesigned, retains a U-shaped structure composed of three buildings. The north arm, simpler, has clogged berries from the 16th and 17th centuries. The provost was listed as historical monuments in 1998 for its facades, roofs, and elements dated the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Little information remains about his history after the Hundred Years War.

The excavations and studies, like those published in the Bulletin Monumental (1999) by Christian Corvisier and Denis Rolland, underline the importance of this site as a testimony of the medieval monastic organization. Today, the remains offer an overview of the economic and religious life of the region, although their conservation status remains variable, with a GPS location deemed poor (level 5/10).

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