Church of Saint-Léger
This church was formerly part of an abbey founded in 1152 in memory of Saint-Léger, Bishop of Autun, assassinated in 678 by the Mayor of the Palace, Ebroïn.
The nave and west front were rebuilt in the 17th century, after the sack of the monastery by the Huguenots in 1567. It is now secularized.
The nave, separated from the rest of the building by a wall, was used before the war as a hall for public meetings, while a geological museum was to have been installed in the transept and choir.
The façade is 17th century.
The central semi-circular porch is supported by twin columns with Ionic capitals.
Its large doorway, surmounted by a broken triangular frontal, is flanked by fluted pilasters.
Above the porch rises the two-storied tower. The first story has a single semi-circular bay on each front, and is divided by Corinthian pilasters. The second story has two twin bays and fluted columns with Corinthian capitals at the corners.
The whole east front of the upper story was demolished by the bombardments (photo above). The windows and corner columns fell on the roof of the nave, breaking it in many places.
The nave, with double side-aisles, was reconstructed in the 17th century, and is of little interest. Three of its vaulted bays have fallen in (photo below).
The two-armed transept, as well as the choir which terminates in a canted chevet (photos opposite and below) were less injured. They date from the 13th century, but have been restored. They have pointed vaults, and are lighted by high and low windows separated by a narrow triforium. The windows of the transept-ends and of the choir are double and surmounted by a rose-window; those of the apse are single and framed outside by abutments. The wall at the end of the north arm of the transept, at the back of which were the monastic buildings, has no opening, but that of the south arm is entirely open. The exterior façades of both arms end in a gable pierced by narrow slits and are flanked by buttresses in the form of polygonal turrets. The east buttress of the north arm was badly damaged by a shell.
Shell holes are visible in the walls of the chevet and in the vaulting of the south arm of the transept.
Through the north aisle of the nave of the church the old cloister of the abbey, built at the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th centuries, is reached. The north and east galleries alone remain.
Each gallery comprises four bays, the pointed vaults of which are supported on one side by brackets, and on the other by a cluster of slender colonnettes.
To the east of the cloister is the old 13th century chapter-house, disfigured. It is lighted by three windows and has pointed arches resting on columns with crocketed capitals.
The walls of the cloister and chapter-house bear numerous traces of the bombardments.
The first door on the right in the east gallery of the cloister leads to a crypt below the church, built at the beginning of the 12th century and about 40 feet in length. It consists of two galleries with two bays, the groined ribs of which are carried on square pillars flanked by columns with cubic foliate capitals.
This crypt is prolonged, on the east, by a polygonal apse lighted by small tierce-point windows and having pointed vaulting which was rebuilt in the 13th century on the plan of the apse of the upper church (photo below).
Leaving Saint-Léger, turn to the left and follow the Rue de la Congrégation as far as the Hôtel-de-Ville.
The Hôtel-de-Ville occupies the old Hôtel de l’Intendance, built in 1772 on the site of the old castle which belonged to the Counts of Soissons in the Middle-Ages. Struck in various places by large calibre shells, it suffered considerable damage (photo above).
Its Museum and Library did not escape damage and were, moreover pillaged, while some of the pictures in the museum were lacerated. However, many objects were removed in time to be saved.
The museum contains some fine sculpture, including: the tympanum of a 13th century portal taken from the Church of Saint-Yved-de-Braisne, representing The Descent of Christ into Hades; another defaced 14th century tympanum from the cloister of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes; a Romanesque storied capital: Abraham sacrificing Isaac (photo p. 41); other 12th century capitals with foliage; the carved lintel of a Renaissance mantelpiece; the memorial statue of an Abbess of Notre-Dame, etc.
The other rooms of the museum contain objects of the pre-historic or Gallo-Roman epoch (e. g. Gallo-Roman dish in chased silver), an important collection of medals and ceramic ware, picture galleries, casts, etc...
The Library contains over 50,000 volumes and 200 manuscripts. Among the latter should be noted: a beautifully illuminated 12th century Missal of Saint-Médard; a Bible of Saint-Yved-de-Braisne (12th century); the Charters and Records of the Abbey of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes; a very fine manuscript of the first half of the 14th century, with miniatures: The Pilgrimage of Human Life.
On leaving the Hôtel-de-Ville, follow on the left, the Rue de la Congrégation, then take the first street on the right (Rue du Coq-Lombard) and go round the block of buildings on the right, bounded by the Rue du Coq-Lombard, Rue de Bauton and Rue des Francs-Boisiers which leads back to the Rue de la Congrégation.
This is one of the best preserved corners of old Soissons. In spite of later structural alterations, several houses built between the 14th and 17th centuries bear traces of their original construction. One of them (no 5 in the court) has a curious doorway with a carved 14th century tympanum.
A carved panel over the doorway represents the King of Spain bidding farewell to the King of France. This doorway leads to a tower of the same period (restored), the upper part of which was struck by a shell.
At no 11, in the Rue de Bauton is the Palais-de-Justice, partly destroyed by shell-fire.
On leaving the Rue des Francs-Boisiers (see ruins of burnt houses), follow the Rue de la Congrégation on the right, then the Rue du Commerce (its continuation) as far as the Place Saint-Pierre: on the left are the ruins of the old Church of Saint-Pierre-au-Parvis.
The Old Church of Saint-Pierre-au-Parvis (Hist. Mon.)
The apse, transept and three bays of the nave of the church, secularized at the time of the Revolution, were pulled down in 1800.
The two remaining bays of the nave were greatly damaged during the war by the explosion of a store of grenades. The roof and most of the vaulting have been destroyed.
Only the main front and the lower part of the south front (fine specimens of the Romanesque style of the middle of the 12th century) escaped with slight injury (photo p. 42).
At the corner of the Place Saint-Pierre and the Rue de la Vieille-Gagnerie there are two semi-circular windows of great beauty, visible from the interior of the house no. 19–21.
Supported by four small columns with storied capitals representing monsters and fantastic animals, these two windows (now blocked up and serving as a wall for the first-floor room of a restaurant) are all that remains of a large church which belonged to the old Abbey of Notre-Dame.
This convent, founded in the 7th century, was rebuilt in 18th century.
The new buildings, completely disfigured by interior alterations and having no further historical interest, were used as barracks during the war. They were destroyed by the bombardments and fire.
Take the Rue de la Gagnerie, turn to the right into the Rue de la Bannière, then again to the right into the Rue Notre-Dame, at the end of which is the Maison de l’Arquebuse (hist. mon.), built in 1626 for the Guild of the Soissons Gunsmiths, and now devoted to military purposes (photo below).
It is a lodge of brick and stone surmounted by a very steep roof, and containing a large hall lighted by ten bays. Its main front is embellished with ornaments of war.
The entrance, built in 1638 by order of Marshal d’Estrées, is Ionic in style and surmounted by an entablature decorated with trophies.
The upper part of the entablature at the north-east corner of the doorway was destroyed by a shell, while others injured the roof of the lodge.
Take the Rue des Feuillants opposite, then Rue Saint-Martin on the left, to the Place de la République, where are the Bourse du Commerce (1898) and the Monument to the Defence of Soissons in 1870 (inaugurated in 1901).
On the south side of the square and bordered by the river Crise, there is the fine garden of the Horticultural Society at present in very bad condition.
Follow the Rue de Château-Thierry, alongside the garden, then its continuation, the Boulevard Jeanne d’ Arc, which makes a sharp bend, to the Abbey of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes.