In the background: Ruins of the Church. The road to Villers-Cotterets is the one going to the left on the photograph.] On arriving at =Longpont=, the Abbey comes into sight; in front of the latter, _turn to the left, then into the first street on the right_, which leads to the Square. On the left is the Abbey; on the right, the fortified gate. [Illustration: THE OLD FORTIFIED GATE OF LONGPONT ABBEY. In the background: Villers-Cotterets Wood and the road leading to Villers-Cotterets village.] The =Abbey=, which belonged to the Cistercian Order, was founded by _Raoul IV._, Count of Crespy, for which pious act he was absolved from excommunication. It quickly became a flourishing institution, the number of monks at the end of the 12th century being two hundred. In the 14th century, during the Hundred Years’ War, this number had fallen to thirty, while on the eve of the Revolution there remained only fifteen. [Illustration: LONGPONT ABBEY, SEEN FROM THE GRANDE PLACE.] The Abbey contains the ruins of a magnificent Gothic Church, the foundations of which were laid in 1131, under the Count of Crespy, but which was only finished in 1226. It was consecrated in 1227, in the presence of King St. Louis and his mother. The fine gabled façade and the walls of the nave, with their massive abutments and graceful flying buttresses, are still standing, as is also the transept. The porches are intact. Of the apsis and chapels, only the walls and columns remain. A 13th century fortified gate, surmounted by four turrets with pointed tops, is all that remains of the walls that formerly protected the Abbey from the bands of marauders which roamed through the country. [Illustration: LONGPONT ABBEY CHURCH, SEEN FROM THE STREET LEADING TO THE FORTIFIED GATE.] [Illustration: FRONT OF LONGPONT ABBEY, OVERLOOKING THE PARK. On the left is the Church.] [Illustration: INTERIOR OF LONGPONT ABBEY CHURCH.] [Illustration: MAP OF THE OPERATIONS FROM OULCHY-LE-CHÂTEAU TO LONGPONT. The roads indicated by the two continuous lines are those to be followed by the tourist.] The entire region just passed through (from Oulchy to Longpont), was occupied and ravaged by the Germans after May 30, 1918, and reconquered by General Mangin’s army from July 18 onwards.