On October 10, 1118, a group of twelve Clairvaux monks came to settle in Trois-Fontaines: St. Bernard nominated a young religious named Roger (1118-1127), born into a noble family from Châlons. The monks are set in a clearing filled with swamps formed by the waters of Bruxenelle; they quickly dry them up in order to develop culture.
The place was called Trois-Fontaines(Three Fountains) because of the three fountains named St. Blaise, Lens and the Wolf. Trois-Fontaines is the seventh Cistercian abbey in the chronological order of Trustees and the first daughter of Clairvaux.
Trois-Fontaines expanded quickly thanks to varied heritage: his important possessions in the surrounding forest would complement each other, by buying and increasingly through donations from lords of surroundings: vineyards at Villers-in-Place, Vitry, Wassy, Vic-sur-Seille, Gueux, and at Saint-Dizier; forges given by Henri the Liberal of Wassy; salt works at Vic-sur-Seille in Lorraine ; mills at Frignicourt; houses in Châlons, Reims and Verdun.Trois Fontaines was so successful that the second abbot, Guy (1127-1133) could proceed in 1128 with the founding of the Abbey of La Chalade, in the diocese of Verdun, in the Argonne Forest. In 1132, Trois-Fontaines resumed Abbey of Orval from the diocese of Verdun. In 1136, she hives off to Hautefontaine on land ceded by Isembard of Vitry, in the diocese of Châlons. That same year, the canons of Cheminon asked for their attachment to Cistercian Order. In a bull of February 17, 1138, Pope Innocent II approves the change in affiliation with Clairvaux , with Trois-Fontaines Abbey for mother. In 1144, on behest of the bishop of Chalons, the monks of Trois-Fontaines take possession of the Abbey of Montiers-Argonne founded in 1134 for the canons of Saint-Paul of Verdun. Then the monks of Trois-Fontaines based Châtillon (Meuse) in 1153, the Abbey of St Gothard in Hungary in 1185, then the Abbey Bélakut (now Croatia) in 1233.All together, with its granddaughters(Chéhéry founded in 1147 by La Chalade and Polno founded in 1219 by Gotthard), the daughters of Trois-Fontaines include ten institutions. Even after the annexation of Cheminon to Cistercian Order under the authority of Trois-Fontaines, the quarrels between the two abbeys were constant, despite several pacifications by the General Chapter .Indeed, both abbeys had rights in the forest Luiz and some of their pastures were common. Arbitrations intending to clarify the respective rights of Trois-Fontaines and Cheminon led only to ephemeral peace.
After the recent significant acquisitions of the thirteenth century, Trois-Fontaines experienced a long period of lethargy. Isolated in the middle of the vast forest of Luiz which took its name , its location away from large lines of communication, untouched by the passage of armies or bands of fired soldiers from the Hundred Years' War , the Religion' s War, the Fronde and the Thirty Years' War. However, it is required to get rid of the most remote of its heritage, which is still significant and likely to attract criminals, as evidenced by the appointment of prestigious representatives abbots : Louis-Lorraine Guise (1536-1578) , the Cardinal of Tencin, a friend of Law (1739-1753) and Cardinal of Bernis (1715-1794), last representative abbot who wasLouis XV 's foreign minister .
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there is a will to rebuild in the classical order medieval buildings described as gothic. the Cardinal Tencin, being at the head of the Abbey of Trois-Fontaines as of 1739 to 1753, began in 1740 full reconstruction of the monastery. The church, built between 1160 and 1190, in the the first Cistercians' simple style was modified internally in the fashion of the day, removing the primitive apse and the transept, thus shortening the building 12 meters. During the Revolution, the Act of February 13, 1790 removes the monastic orders in France: fifteen monks of Trois-Fontaines are hunted and property from the abbey is confiscated. Most religious retreated into their families, two gave the oath to the civilian clergy Constitution (12 July 1790) and were appointed as parish priests, only one returned to secular life.The buildings were sold in October 1790: as elsewhere, liturgical objects and relics are sent to be melted in Paris; 40 manuscripts from the twelfth-thirteenth centuries joined the library of Vitry-le-Francois (destroyed in the bombing of 1940).The abbey, first parish church, gradually fell into disrepair and was abandoned. Since 1825, the last vault of the nave collapsed, leading a portion of the walls to their collapse. The red marble altar of the eighteenth century was given to the church of Sermaize, a lectern at the Church of Cheminon and the great organ at the collegiate Vitry.
The great monumental gate built in 1741 by Cardinal de Tencin introduced in the court of honour, closed by a 5 meters highgallery , comprising ten arcades.Above the door is the coat of arms of the Abbey (Azure with a fountain of silver and three jets of water").Past the door, we discover on the right and left the remains of two wingsof the monastery, rebuilt in the eighteenth century. These buildings extended once in two parallel wings, connected by another gallery, forming a second court.To the left of the abbey is the old cellar.The significant changes made by the abbot Tencin affected the church too.The building was, in fact, significantly reduced in length by the construction of a semicircular apse within the nave.The eastern parts of the plan remained unknown until father Dimier's search.During two excavations conducted in 1963 and 1964, he brought to light the eighteenth century choir, and the transept and choir from the twelfth century.Initially, the building was 70 meters long with a transept of 40 meters wide and 12 meters long, and an apse with flat rectangular wall of 6.50 meters by 6 meters.The Nave included eight bays, there are still four of them with their vaults and the south wall for virtually its entire length.The transept of the northern arm is a little shorter than in the south, had three chapels on each arm.
Sources : Departmental archives of the Marne, depositing Châlons, under-22 series H (bundles 1-120).Bibliothèque nationale de France, cabinet des manuscrits, collection de Champagne (t.45). Bibliotheque Nationale de France, cabinet manuscripts, a collection of Champagne (t.45).Gallia christiana in provincias ecclesiasticas distributa , Paris, 1749-1754, t.9, c.956. Gallia in Christiana provincias ecclesiasticas distributa, Paris, 1749-1754, t.9, c.956.
Music : L'Abbaye de Trois-Fontaines composed by S. OUDOT. Playing Le Débuché de Paris (courtesy S.OUDOT)
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