You find the fortified churches of the Thiérache fascinating, but don’t have so the time or leisure to visit them all? You want to know which church you should look at as an example then? Go to Plomion, you won’t regret it!

Because Notre-Dame is not only one of the most spectacular of the region’s fortified churches, and has one of the largest hilltop keeps alongside Prices and Saint-Algis, but since its complete renovation in 2018-2022, it is also the most freely accessible fortified church in the Thiérache.

Oh yes, and of course it has all the elements of fortification that we can see in these churches: Towers, keep, coulter towers and a series of over 60 embrasures, 42 of which are in the keep alone! Incidentally, these are constructed in such a way that there are no blind spots.

A special feature can be found on the ground floor in a corner inside the keep: a narrow passageway leads into a small room that served as a prison.

And since the renovation, it has another special feature: also on the ground floor in the keep, a terminal has been set up where you can very well understand the development of the church from the original primitive building in basilica form to its present state.

In the other rooms, too, information panels explain the respective function, which makes Notre-Dame unique in this level of detail. I have therefore included a second slide show on this page to show you all this information.

As you can see, this church makes me go into raptures. So I won’t say much more, the slideshows should give you all the information you need. And as we all know, pictures are worth a thousand words.