Abbaye d'Argensolles

The Cistercian convent of Argensolles once stood in the Bois d’Argensolles, a wooded area beside the Ruisseau d’Argensolles south of Épernay. It began in 1221 when Blanka of Navarre turned a Benedictine estate into a house for Cistercian nuns sent from Val-Notre-Dame. The first abbess was Ida of Argensolles, later called blessed, who died in 1226. By 1274 the community had grown to ninety sisters under the supervision of Clairvaux. After the French Revolution the buildings were sold, dismantled and removed, leaving only the street name Rue du Couvent d’Argensolle to mark the site. The abbey’s history is recorded in medieval sources and later studies. A 1959 article by Nicolas Donnet traces its foundation, while an 1889 life of Ida by Etienne Héron de Villefosse preserves details of the first abbess. The grave slab of Blanka was taken to Mancy and that of Abbess Marguerite de Chastelvilain to Notre-Dame in Épernay, where visitors can still see them. Further fragments from the cloister have found their way into neighbouring churches. These scattered remains are the only physical traces left of the once large convent. Today the wood and stream recall the setting chosen by Blanka eight centuries ago. The quiet valley offers a place to walk among beech and oak where the nuns once kept their gardens and fishponds. A single street name in Moslins points to the vanished enclosure, while inside nearby churches the slabs of Blanka and Marguerite lie flat on the floor. The absence of walls makes the site easier to picture as it was in the 13th century, when ninety veiled women prayed and worked beside the little river.