Priory of Saint-Arnoul

The Priory of Saint-Arnoul, named after a legendary fifth-century bishop of Tours, is located in Crépy-en-Valois in France.

In 1076, Count Simon, on a pilgrimage to Rome, offered it to Abbot Hugh of Cluny as a daughter house.

Hugh returned to France with Simon and personally stayed at Saint-Arnoul to reform it along Cluniac lines, against the resistance of the monks.

The west wall and the Romanesque crypt, both preserved today, were built in the final decades of the eleventh century.

Nonetheless, some medieval walls were destroyed in 1964, when the municipal government proceeded with work without the approval of the Service des Monuments Historiques.