Montreuil-sur-Barse

This village is located on the edge of the Barse valley, where the Boderonne flows into. The word "Montreuil" in Old French meant a small monastery in Latin: "manasteriolum". The addition of "sur Barse" dates from the decree of 4 February 1919. It was intended to differentiate this one from the other Montreuil (today Saint Léger near Troyes).

A little bit of geography: Commune of Montiéramey + hamlet Le Ménilot
436 inhabitants in 1790 - 405 inhabitants in 1999
Nicknamed the inhabitants: "Thieves of Peace"
673 hectares in surface area
Wet agricultural region: Wet Champagne
Geographical region: Southern Champagne Forests

A little history: The prosperity of the local economy has been ensured for many years by the exploitation of green sands. The station's railway facilities, which supplied the green sand ironworks, testify to this prosperity. This sand is essential for casting castings. It contains hard parts of blocks or benches that were extracted for use in buildings. In addition to this operation, economic activity was flourishing, until recently, thanks to its dairy. The milk was collected in the Barse Valley as far as Vendeuvre to be pasteurized and sent by rail to Paris. These daily shipments could reach up to 7000 litres.

Cultural heritage: Church dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary: it is the former monastic church and has been classified as a "Historical Monument" since 1840. It has a Latin cross plan and is fully vaulted. Its nave dates from the 12th century and its transept from the 16th century. It has very beautiful 16th century stained glass windows, such as the one of the "martyrdom of Sebastian". A colossal altarpiece with twisted columns, sculpted by Gérard Gaultier, reinforces the imposing aspect of the whole. Finally, no less than sixteen representations of Mary appear in this church, the most original of which is the one painted by Jean Nicot on a cloud of smoke. Remains of Montiéramey Abbey founded by the priest Arremar: they are still visible in the state in which it was built in the 18th century. There is still the abbey house, the cope of Montiéramey, the abbot's ceremonial coat decorated with 49 quadrilobal medallions representing the Virgin and the saints of the "Golden Legend". This rare piece is now kept in the Treasury of the Cathedral of Troyes. Château Saint-Martin, built on the site of a barn that depends on the abbey.

Natural heritage: Whether private or communal, cultivated hillside orchards are the ideal places to live for the Huppe fasciée, the Torcol anteater, some orchids, the Colchique d'automne, and some species of bats... It is in this municipality that the Owl was last seen in the Park a few years ago.

A nice initiative on this commune of Montreuil-sur-Barse is set up by some of its inhabitants... a digital audioguide to discover the history of the commune while walking around.
Simply download the IziTravel application to your laptop and then "The Squirrel's Journey" (thanks to geo-location, the laptop can find the route on its own once the IziTravel application is installed).
Here is the link to follow: izi.travel/fr/3502-le-parcours-de-l-ecureuil/fr
You will thus have a brief presentation of the village and then a description of 11 "tourist attractions" present in the town: the school, the town hall, the 14/18 monument, the church, the stele of 27 August 1944, the Nerot cross, Jean qui rit/Jean qui pleure, the Saint Gilles fountain, the washhouse, the path to the chore, the Berthaut cross and the 16th century Champagne checkered house. The explanations last about 20 minutes in total.