Abbey_de_Sainte-Marie-au-Bois

Sainte-Marie-au-Bois is a former abbey of the Premonstratensians order, located in the commune of Vilcey-sur-Trey, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France, built near a spring at the bottom of a small valley where a tributary of the Trey flows. Long considered the oldest settlement of the Premonstratensians order in Lorraine, its abbot in the early 17th century was Servais de Lairuelz, who led the reform of his order, first in Lorraine and then beyond. At the start of the First World War, French writer and poet Charles Péguy stayed at the former abbey, now a farm. Today, its remarkable remains make Sainte-Marie-au-Bois a rare architectural reminder of the Prémontré order in the 12th century.