Tour of Laon: ‘The Butte de Laon: water from the bottom to the top’

The Porte de Soissons closed one of the main entrances to the west of the medieval town. Built around 1200, and despite its deterioration, it remains a fine example of medieval military architecture. Just below it is Laon's "Tower of Pisa", the Tour de Dame Eve, a corner and flanking tower of the medieval rampart. A landslide of its base due to the clay soil gives it its distinctive appearance...

Now a utilitarian structure, located below the Porte de Soissons and recently restored, this ashlar structure, decorated with a pediment and lion-head spillway, was already visible in the 18th century... Today it marks the entrance to the Chemin des Creutes.

The six main ramps leading up to the plateau were still in existence and could only be used on foot, so the upper town remained inaccessible for a long time.In the 18th century, ramps were built that were less steep and wider: the Semilly ramp was the first of this type, built in 1780.In 1874, it was named ‘National Road No. 2 from Paris to Maubeuge’, and the paving can still be seen today...

Dating back to 1847, this was one of the offices used to collect ‘octrois’, taxes on goods for local consumption (drinks, livestock, firewood, etc.). ‘Granted by the king to the municipalities, these highly controversial taxes were the main source of revenue for the towns until they were abolished by the Vichy regime in 1943.

In 1796, the commune granted Mr Suin a portion of the fountain path in exchange for the construction of a public drinking trough. Its current appearance dates from 1911. It consists of a drinking trough and a wash-house covered by a lean-to roof.

This cemetery was created by the Germans in 1917, when they occupied the Aisne capital. It mainly contains soldiers who fell in the Chemin des Dames theatre of operations in 1917 and 1918 (2,653 men are buried here). It should be noted that a stone element from a previous military cemetery located on the Saint-Vincent plateau during the war (in the upper town) has been deposited here and has now disappeared. The Bousson cemetery is now surrounded by housing in the new ZAC Ile-de-France development zone.

Situated on sandy, damp, even marshy soil, this was the ‘domain of the gardeners and market gardeners of Ardon’ from the 7th century onwards. The water table, once drained by bundles of thorns, was tapped by fountains, two of which still exist. In 1960, early vegetables such as leeks, cabbages (and the famous artichoke from Laon!) were grown on some fifteen very fragmented hectares. The gardeners, some of whom had been here for twelve generations (since 1680), owned farmhouses built of limestone.

This is undoubtedly the oldest monastic foundation in Laon (founded at the end of the 6th century by the Merovingian queen Brunehaut). This important urban Benedictine abbey was ruined after the French Revolution. All that remains is the magnificent abbey palace built in 1771 against the church, some of whose arches can still be seen, the medieval fortified enclosure and the abbey cellars. It should be noted that the abbey has been burnt down three times in its long history: in 882 during a Norman raid, in 1359 during the Hundred Years' War and most recently in June 2008...

The origin of its name probably comes from the distortion of the original term ‘the lot of the dead’ (because it is located at sunset, to the west). A mill stood on this eminence until 1870, when it was replaced by this military structure. It was used as an optical observation post to communicate with the four surrounding Séré de Rivières forts (Bruyères, Montbérault, Laniscourt and Chavignon) via a heliostat. Note that if you climb to the top of the fort, you will have an uninterrupted view of the south and west of the Laonnois, and its surroundings are equipped with children's play areas...

Owned by Saint Vincent's Abbey, it became the property of the town of Laon during the French Revolution.It is fed by two drains: one to the north, 85m long and at ground level; the other to the south, 49m long and accessible via a small corridor after an iron gate dating from 1756. The drains were last restored in 1826 and the exterior in 1996.  Its name is linked to the large number of mills dotted around this part of the town in the early 19th century (as proof, take a look at the model of the relief map of the town)...