Soissons
a town and fortress of France, in the department of Aisne; on SOLAR CYCLE the Aisne river; 65 miles N. E. of Paris.
It is the key of Paris for an army invad. ing France from the Netherlands, and is the meeting point of several military roads. The principal building is the cathedral, founded in the 12th century, the library of which contains many rare MSS. There are also some remains of the great castellated abbey of St. Jean des Vignes (1076), where Thomas à Becket found refuge when in exile. The church of St. Peter (Romanesque) dates from the 12th century; there are slight remains of the once celebrated abbey of Notre Dame (founded 660) and of the abbey church of St. Léger (1139). Quite near to Soissons is an institution for deaf and dumb, which occupies the site of the famous abbey (560) of St. Médard, where Clothaire and Siegbert were buried. The civil buildings embrace a college and a museum of antiquities. Soissons is one of the oldest towns in France, and was celebrated even in the time of the Romans, when it bore the name first of Noviodunum, and afterward of Augusta Suessionum; hence its modern name of Soissons. It was the second capital of Gallia Belgica, and subsequently the most important town of the Romans in northern Gaul.
Near to it Clovis overthrew Syagrius, the Roman commander, in 486. The same prince made Soissons the seat of the Frankish monarchy of Neustria. Here Pepin was crowned king, and Louis the Pious imprisoned. It was the gathering place of more than one important council and has been repeatedly captured and sacked in war-e. g., six times during the Hundred Years' War, by the Armagnac party in 1414, by Charles V. (1544), the Huguenots (1565), three times in 1814, and by the Germans in 1870. The town suffered severely in the WORLD WAR (q. v.). It was captured by the Germans, and was retaken by the French on Aug. 2, 1918. Pop. about 14,300.