7. St-Hilaire-au-Temple to Suippes

Saint-Hilaire au Temple is located in a large fertile plain that man cultivated during the High Antiquity and the High Middle Ages, but it was the arrival of the Knights Templar, an order of religious knights, and the installation of a Commandery in the region in the 12th century, which will be the origin of a barn of the Commandery and then a village from where its current name comes from.
The statues preserved in the church date from this period.

The line was wanted by the cities of Reims and Metz after the disappointment of the line's route from Paris to Strasbourg. It was first mentioned by the Prefect of the Moselle, Albert-Edmond-Pierre-Stanislas Germeau, on 22 December 1841.
After the War of 1870, the Treaty of Frankfurt, by modifying the border between Germany and France to the detriment of the latter, required the construction of a railway line to re-establish a link between the north of the new department of Meurthe-et-Moselle and the town of Nancy, its capital. Serving Longwy is also an important factor, given the importance of its iron mines and ironworks, which have been isolated by this new configuration.
The Saint-Hilaire section in Verdun was twin-tracked on March 10, 1880. After the 1914-1918 war, the remaining part of the line was twin-tracked.
The line was restored to single-track between Saint-Hilaire and Conflans - Jarny between 1972 and 1975 and intermediate stations were closed.
Today the line is used by grain trains and military trains.

Church built in the 19th century.

Creation of the cemetery in 1915, Battle of Champagne, near a field hospital.
Arrangements from 1916 to 1918, 1929. 1930: regrouping of bodies exhumed from military cemeteries east of Reims (Mont-Frenet, Tahure, Souain, Mesnil, Beauséjour, Sainet-marie-à-Py).
8,485 m² - 2,307 bodies
14-18: 2,282 French - 12 British - 3 Czechs - 1 American.
During the Second World War (1940 - 1944), the bodies of 9 French soldiers are buried.

Suippes was part of the various World War I front lines linking the Chemin des dames and Verdun. The Interpretation Centre offers a reconstruction of the history and course of this war, accompanied by a large collection of archives and numerous testimonials.

More details : Marne 14-18 Interpretation Centre of Suippes

The pillars connecting the nave to the transept of the church of Saint Martin date from the 15th century but the building replaced an older church of which we know nothing.
The church has a nave with five bays and a bell tower surmounting the transept crossing. The vaults of the main nave have been rebuilt several times, especially after the two World Wars.
The organ of the church of Saint-Martin de Suippes
The organ alone deserves to enter the church of Suippes. As early as the beginning of the 17th century the church of Saint-Martin had a single manual organ which was restored at the end of the 19th century. Damaged during the First World War it was restored. On the threshold of the Second World War the organ was dismantled and left abandoned in the building. In 1989 the municipality decided to build a new organ in the 18th century Central German style which was the work of Rémy Malher. It was inaugurated in 2003.