Saint-Pierremont Abbey

The Ancient Abbey of Canons Regular of St. Augustine of Saint-Pierremont (i.e., St. Peter's mountain) (French: Abbaye de Saint-Pierremont, German: Abtei Petersberg) is a former Augustinian abbey in the commune of Avril in what is now the Meurthe-et-Moselle département of France (formerly part of the Duchy of Bar in the Upper Lorraine region of the Holy Roman Empire), founded in the late eleventh century and dedicated to Saint Peter.

Some buildings of the eighteenth century survive (enriched with older fragments, such as the arms of the abbot Jean Marius (1575-1597) and of the Duchy of Bar), notably the dovecote of the abbey, which was built in 1747 in the Baroque style and remodeled in 1774 with Rococo elements; it is registered in the Base Mérimée of notable French architectural monuments.

In 1186, Saint-Pierremont briefly served as a refuge for the exiled Archbishop of Trier, Folmar of Karden, formerly a member of the congregation.

Being situated in the Three Bishoprics, the abbey became part of France with the settlement of the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648.

Though the congregation lost its formal independence in 1733, being made directly subordinate to the cathedral chapter of Metz, the community itself survived until the French Revolution.