Ribemont

Ribemont grew around a castle on the Oise and the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Nicolas-des-Prés, founded by its lord Anselm in 1083. The town received a communal charter in the Middle Ages. Its position made it vulnerable to the armies that crossed northern France, and its inhabitants surrounded it with walls in 1357.

The abbey was burned and plundered during the Wars of Religion, then rebuilt in 1663. Its prior Jean Dupart worked to restore Benedictine discipline. The town suffered further attacks in the seventeenth century; in 1653 a small royal garrison held the castle against Condé's much larger army for two days, giving Turenne time to protect Saint-Quentin, while the town burned. During the Revolution the abbey was confiscated and sold as national property in 1791.