Chapel of St. Anne.—Above the church, on the top of the St. Anne Plateau, where the fortress used to stand, there now remains only an unpretending chapel, much frequented by pilgrims. The building has a wooden front, surmounted by a small steeple, and a stone choir with pointed vaulting, the flamboyant ornament being in the same style as that of the St. Didier Church. Four ancient elms give shade to the parvis and rise high above the steeple. Inside is a sepulchre with six almost life-size statues, acquired in 1829 when the Church of the Minimes of Verdun was pulled down. Three only of these statues, the three Maries, all painted, are late 16th century. The finest, which is in the centre, is attributed by some to Ligier Richier, but this appreciation is open to question. Near by there is a hermitage, which at the beginning of the 17th century belonged to the Benedictines, and later to the Franciscans. In 1845, the town of Clermont acquired the whole plateau, the promenade, hermitage, and the chapel. From the plateau—the highest point in the Argonne—there is a fine and very extensive view over the Forest of Argonne on the left, and the Forest of Hesse on the right, while the Vauquois-Montfaucon ridge appears in the distance.
CLERMONT-EN-ARGONNE. CHURCH NAVE, SEEN FROM NORTH AISLES
