Crépy-en-Valois - Saint-Arnoul / Saint-Denis

The ruins of the abbey Saint-Arnoul are to the left. The church in the background is Saint-Denis, now parish church. It once was part of a castle owned by the local Earls of Valois.

One of them, Gauthier le Blanc, founded the "Abbaye Saint-Arnoul" in 1008, to house the relics of Saint Arnoul. Since 1077 the abbey was a filiation of Cluny.

As well in Crepy-en-Valois Philippe d'Alsace and his wife founded a collegiate in 1182. They dedicated this to Saint-Thomas Becket, what was a clear political statement. Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in 1170, after Henry II of England (aka "Henry Plantagenet") in a conflict with Becket had asked "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?".

About 150 years after that, the war between the House of Plantagenet and the House of Valois had started. During this Hundred Years' War, the English sacked Crépy-en-Valois and destroyed most of it.

The "Abbaye Saint-Arnoul" recovered, but was sold and demolished after the Revolution. What was left, crumbled until since the 1960s volunteers care for the ruins and save, what has survived.