Trois-Fontaines Abbey

It was the first daughter-house founded by Clairvaux Abbey, one of the four Cistercian primary abbeys, and was established north of the head of navigation of the Marne at Saint-Dizier by Bernard of Clairvaux in 1118, on isolated woodland given by Hugh de Vitry, which the monks drained.

The abbey was very active in its first century or so in the settlement of daughter houses: James of Pecorara, later a cardinal, was elected abbot in 1215.

Between 1716 and 1741, the abbot in commendam was Pierre Guérin de Tencin, French ambassador in Rome, who was made a cardinal in 1739.

It has a concave façade with four very large pilasters with Corinthian capitals and supports a terrace surrounded by a balustrade.

The lower portion of the surround of the large rose window is extant, which fills almost the entire width of the west front.