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Signy

Founded in 1135 in the diocese of Reims, Signy is “in antiquity and holiness, the first abbey of Essuens'country”. Daughter of Igny, granddaughter of Clairvaux, built in the solitude of forests, “she is the center of a small town proud of its wealth and its imposing buildings” wrote down the Carthusian Dom Ganneron in 1640. Guillaume (William ?) of St. Thierry, renowned figure of Cistercian spirituality, counselor, friend and biographer of St. Bernard, make this clear by retiring there from 1135 until hid death in 1148. He wrote there most of his work including the famous “ Letter to the Brothers of Mont- -Dieu” or “Golden letter”. He is buried there. One can also fin there many illustrious commendatory abbots: Charles of Bourbon, uncle of Henry IV, Armand of Richelieu, Louis-Aimé son of Louis XV… From the convent buildings and abbey-church demolished during the French Revolution remains only the natural site of the enclosure surrounded by hydraulics, the farm and the hotel at the southern entrance, integrated in the village and the land shaped by the monks. Stopover on the Ways of Saint James and Guillaume's Road. The Guillaume of St.THIERRY's Hall was built on the site of the abbey, in a span of a restored wool mill of 19s. An exhibition presents the monastic estate, the buildings of the outside-abbey in town, the excavations from 1994… and the work of the monks: hydraulic installations, pavement…