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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Troussures farm, located in Sainte-Eusoye, Oise, Hautes-de-France, was originally a Cistercian farm attached to the Chaalis Abbey. Founded in the 12th century, it received land donations between 1146 and 1161, the first reference to a barn dates back to 1151. The conversing monks, in charge of his exploitation, had to walk two days from Chaalis, exceeding the Cistercian rules limiting the movements to one day. The estate reached 280 hectares in the Middle Ages, demonstrating its economic importance for the abbey.

The barn, dated the 13th century by its architectural decoration, was 42 meters long and 15 wide, divided into three naves by square pillars. A fire, visible to the pink interior walls, damaged the structure, resulting in the replacement of stone pillars by wooden poles. In 1966, a storm destroyed its tile cover, accelerating its decline: the arcades collapsed and the openings were walled for security reasons. The cylindrical dovecote, the only protected element (registered in 1989), was destroyed between 1995 and 2000 by its owners.

The history of Troussures is documented by medieval archives, including a papal bubble of Innocent III in 1198 confirming a territorial agreement between the Abbeys of Bec and Chaalis. A sentence of 1383 also mentions the "House or Barn of Troussures". The site illustrates the Cistercian clearings in the forest of Noirvaux in the 12th century, with secondary barns ("bordae") built to compensate for the insufficient capacity of the main barn. Today, only ruins of the barn and vestiges of the gate remain.

The dovecote, 2.45 meters radius with a pepper roof, was the last classified item on the site. Its rotating scale was still visible around 1995, before its disappearance. The Troussures farm, although partially destroyed, remains an architectural testimony of Cistercian farms in Picardia, linked to the medieval monastic economy. Its decline in the twentieth century reflects the challenges of preserving rural monuments, often vulnerable to abandonment or demolition.

Historical sources, such as Dietrich Lohrmann's (1975) or François Blary's (1989), point to his role in clearing the forest of Noirvaux. The barn, with its third-point arches and foothills, embodied Cistercian engineering, adapted to the agricultural and logistical needs of the time. Its present state, though degraded, offers an overview of medieval construction techniques and the spatial organization of monastic farms.

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