The entrance was fortified, and a continuous wall with roadway, loop-holes and watch-towers, completely encircled the Abbey.
Beyond this wall stretched the vineyards and agricultural estates of the monastery. Although despoiled during the Hundred Years War, and later during the religious wars, the Abbey of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes remained rich and flourishing until the Revolution when the monks were expelled. Some years later (1805), an imperial decree issued at the request of the Bishop of Soissons, ordered the demolition of the church, the materials of which were to be used for repairing the cathedral. The protests of the inhabitants induced the Bishop to have the main front preserved.
PLAN OF THE MONASTERY.
Engraving by L. Baraban, 1673.
The Façade of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes before the War.
Three late 13th century portals surmounted by gables open in the façade. Under the central portal are two mutilated statues: on the right, Saint-Augustin; on the left: Saint-John-the-Baptist clothed in the skin of an animal.
A graceful clerestory gallery, continued at the back round a wide platform, which at one time formed a gallery above the grand nave, separates the central portal from the large rose-window set in an irregular arch. The latter has lost its interior net-work of mullions and is surmounted by a gable. The gallery and rose-window are late 14th century.
FRONT OF THE ABBEY
OF ST-JEAN-DES-VIGNES BEFORE THE WAR.
A two-storied tower crowned by a spire rises above each of the side portals. The first story dates from the end of the 14th century. The upper part, which differs in each tower, is more than a century later.