Laon is a French commune , prefecture of the department of Aisne and therefore located in the Hauts-de-France region . Its inhabitants are called the Laonnois.

Fortified town on a plateau, boasting the largest conservation area in France (370 hectares), Laon has many monuments medieval , mansions and houses of xvi ^th , xvii ^th and xviii ^th  centuries many , especially in Sérurier, Saint-Jean, Saint-Cyr or Vinchon streets, veritable urban museums. Its basement is crisscrossed with underground passages, quarries and wells, the preservation of which is one of the current heritage issues. Located at its summit, its cathedral has earned it the nickname “Crowned Mountain”.

Evoking the city in a letter to his wife Adèle , Victor Hugo wrote that: “Everything is beautiful in Laon, the churches, the houses, the surroundings, everything…  ” .

Sights

Places and monuments 

Laon is classified as a city ​​of art and history . This is fully justified in view of the number of buildings and remarkable sites in the town, in particular on the Montagne de Laon. It is nicknamed The Crowned Mountain . In 2008, there were 68 buildings classified in the Register of Historic Monuments . Among the most remarkable monuments, we can point out:

• The Notre-Dame cathedral , rue du Parvis Gaultier de Mortagne, Gothic style, dominates the hill, the town and its ramparts. 110 meters long, it served as a model for Notre-Dame de Chartres and Paris cathedral . It was built between 1150 and 1180 , is one of the first Gothic cathedrals, but the choir, too little from 1200, was rebuilt in the beginning of the xiii ^th  century. It includes in particular:
  • four towers, bell towers or bell towers which Villard de Honnecourt said were “the most beautiful in the world”;
  • a lantern tower;
  • life-size sculpted animals: oxen installed on the floors of the towers.
• The episcopal palace is located immediately north of the cathedral, Place Aubry. Listed as a historical monument in 1850, today it is the city’s high court . The great hall of the bishop’s palace (today the hall of the Assize Court) has remarkable decorated capitals, and includes three turrets on the ramparts side and a gallery of arcades on the courtyard side. Two superimposed chapels date from the second half of the xii ^th  century.
• The Hotel-Dieu , Place Aubry, dates from the second half of the xii ^th  century.
• The chapel of the Templars , rue Georges Ermant. Templars , also dates from the xii ^th  century (in 1145, a bull of Pope Innocent II granted the disciples of the Temple the right to build their own chapels). Unusually, it has an octagonal nave and a “comb” bell tower. It is located within the walls of the municipal museum of Laon, the museum of art and archeology .
• Saint-Vincent de Laon Abbey, rue Alphonse-Juin.
• The Saint-Martin abbey church , Place Sister Marie Catherine, of the Premonstratensian order , built at the same time as the cathedral. Its facade dates from around 1270. The abbey, founded in 1124, saw its abbey dwelling from 1620 transformed into a Hôtel-Dieu after the Revolution.
• The Saint-Martin-au-Parvis church , place du Parvis Gaultier de Mortagne.
• The Saint-Pierre-ès-Liens church, rue Richebourg-d’Ardon-sous-Laon.
• The Saint-Jean-Baptiste church , 19 rue Fernand-Thuillart in Vaux-sur-Laon.
• The Church of Our Lady and St. Eloi , instead of Leuilly.
• Saint-Marcel church, rue Léon-Nanquette
• Notre-Dame-du-Sauvoir church, allée Sainte-Hélène
• The old Saint-Pierre-au-Marché church in Laon , rue Saint-Pierre-Marché.
• The old Saint-Corneille-et-Saint-Cyprien church , 9 rue Georges-Ermant.
• The old Saint-Rémy-au-Velours church , 3 place Leclerc.
• The remains of Notre-Dame-la-Profonde church , rue de l’Arquebuse.
• The remains of the Saint-Jean du Bourg church, Saint-Jean cloister street
• The chapel of the General Hospital of Laon , 32 rue du Treize-October.
• The Le Nain Brothers college chapel, rue Pierre Curie
• The old abbey chapel, roundabout, rue Gabriel Péri, rue Nestor-Grehant in Laneuville
• The Saint-Christophe chapel, 6 rue Romanette in Sémilly-sous-Laon
• The remains of Saint Genebaud chapel, 39 rue Kennedy
• The Convent of the Ladies of the Congregation-Notre-Dame , 1 rue de la Congrégation.
• The Minimes Convent, 44 rue Vinchon.
• The priory of Val-des-Écoliers , 40 rue Vinchon.
• The Grand Séminaire, 9 rue Saint-Pierre-Marché
• Protestant temple , rue de l’Arquebuse, built in 1887.
• Evangelical Pentecostal, 10 impasse de la Mission.
• The Town Hall , built in 1836-1838 on the site of the old tower known as Louis d’Outremer.
• The ramparts of Laon with its gates and towers.
• German military cemetery of Bousson .
• German military cemetery at the Maneuver Field .

Museum 

• Laon Art and Archeology Museum