Soissons before and during the war

by Unknown

CHURCH OF SAINT-LÉGER

SAINT-LÉGER CHURCH.

This church was formerly part of an abbey founded in 1152 in memory of Saint-Léger, Bishop of Autun, assassinated in 678 by the Mayor of the Palace, Ebroïn.

The nave and west front were rebuilt in the 17th century, after the sack of the monastery by the Huguenots in 1567. It is now secularized.

The nave, separated from the rest of the building by a wall, was used before the war as a hall for public meetings, while a geological museum was to have been installed in the transept and choir.

The façade is 17th century.

The central semi-circular porch is supported by twin columns with Ionic capitals.

Its large doorway, surmounted by a broken triangular frontal, is flanked by fluted pilasters.