Nos événements

Surrounded by greenery and criss-crossed by the river Ternoise, Blangy-sur-Ternoise was already mentioned in Caesar's accounts of the conquest of Gaul. The village shares its history with its neighbours: Azincourt and its battle, Belval or Auchy-lès-Hesdin and their abbeys, Tramecourt and its castle.

In the 7th century, Blangy-sur-Ternoise (then Blangiacium) became a county under King Clovis II, and one of the 7 fortresses of the Ternois region. Blangy-sur-Ternoise's development then began, thanks in particular to a figure who had become the town's identity: Saint Berthe. In 682, on the death of her husband, she transformed the castle she had received as a dowry into an abbey for Benedictine nuns. This first abbey was destroyed by the Norman invasions two centuries later. Benedictine monks settled there in 1031, until the French Revolution. Most of the buildings, including the abbey church, were subsequently destroyed. Only a few traces are still visible today. The current abbey stands on the site of the old abbey farm.

In 1537, Charles V's troops set fire to the parish church, which in the Middle Ages had been built ‘upside down’, with the choir in place of the bell tower. It was not restored until the 18th century, at the behest of the monks of the abbey, in the neoclassical style recognisable by the Ionic capitals on the pillars of the nave. This time, the choir faces east.

It is richly furnished and remarkably decorated: the high altar, its altarpiece, the stalls, the holy water font, the baptismal font with the coat of arms of Father Leurin, the first mitred abbot, the confessional and the pulpit.

Although the church is dedicated to Saint Gilles, it is also the church of Saint Bertha, who can be seen in the painting in the altarpiece of the main altar, in the stained glass windows in the choir, among the statues, and above all in the shrine containing her relics, protected by a window and a wrought iron grille. The Novena organised in July to mark the feast of Saint Berthe is a not-to-be-missed event in the region.

Take a stroll around this commune of 730 inhabitants, which was awarded the Village Patrimoine label in 2021, and you'll discover other places linked to Saint Berthe.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)