Abbeys and priories of French-speaking Switzerland

By NovaGB · Published on 2.11.2026

Long before municipalities existed, monasteries ruled part of French-speaking Switzerland. They owned whole villages, administered justice, cleared forests and planted vineyards. The Reformation of 1536, and later the Revolution, closed most of them. Their churches and former estates still appear in many of the pages on this site.

The first monasteries (5th to 7th century)

At Saint-Maurice, the story begins before the monastery. Around 380-390, Theodulus, the first bishop of Valais, had the bones attributed to the soldiers of the Theban Legion carried to the foot of the cliff at Agaune. The site drew pilgrims as early as the Burgundian period. In May-June 515, Sigismund, the future king of the Burgundians, founded an abbey there, inaugurated on 22 September. The monks practised the laus perennis, a praise of God sung without interruption by several choirs taking turns. The abbey gave its name to the town in the early 11th century.

In the Vaud Jura, Romainmôtier probably goes back to a foundation by Saint Romanus around 450. The link with Romanus appears only in a 13th-century chronicle, but the excavations of 1905-1915 uncovered a 5th-century church. The monastery declined, then Duke Chramnelenus introduced the Rule of Columbanus there by 642 at the latest. In 753, Pope Stephen II stopped there on his way to King Pepin the Short. The monastery of Baulmes was founded in the same period, in 652.

Further north, two 7th-century foundations followed the tradition of Columbanus. Around 640, Gundoin, Duke of Alsace, granted land to be cleared in the upper Birse valley, in order to reopen the road over the Pierre-Pertuis pass. Walbert, abbot of the Columbanian monastery of Luxeuil, had the abbey of Moutier-Grandval founded there, at Moutier. Remains of this establishment were found in 2008 under the Rue Centrale. At Saint-Ursanne, an abbey grew up in the 7th century over the tomb of Ursicinus, who died around 610.

The age of Cluny (10th to 11th century)

In the 10th century, the royal family of Burgundy held several of these houses and handed them over to the abbey of Cluny, then expanding fast. Between 966 and 990, King Conrad gave Romainmôtier for good to Abbot Majolus. His successor Odilo stayed there several times and, at the end of the 10th century, had the present church built on the model of the second church of Cluny. It is among the most important examples of Cluniac Romanesque art in Switzerland.

At Payerne, a chapter of canons existed around 950/960. Empress Adelaide, daughter of Queen Bertha, asked for it to be attached to Cluny as a priory around 965, and had her mother buried there. In the 12th century, the monks of Payerne produced a series of forgeries, known as the "testament of Queen Bertha", which made Bertha the founder of the house and granted the monks rights they did not have. These forgeries are the source of the legend of "good Queen Bertha". The nave of the present abbey church dates from 1070-1080.

Both Cluniac houses managed distant estates through small priories. In the 12th century Romainmôtier founded priories at Bursins, Mollens, Vufflens-la-Ville and Vallorbe. They disappeared by the 14th century at the latest. The houses at Bevaix and Corcelles were attached to it in the same period, but kept some autonomy until the Reformation. Payerne had priories at Bassins, at Pont-la-Ville and as far away as Alsace. Before 1174, it also received the old monastery of Baulmes.

Cistercians and Premonstratensians: the 12th-century wave

Between about 1120 and 1145, a series of new abbeys settled in remote valleys. They belonged to two reforming orders: the Cistercians, the white monks from Cîteaux, and the Premonstratensians, canons regular who trace their origins to Saint Norbert. The bishops of Lausanne and Basel and the noble families of the region endowed them with land.

Among the Cistercians, Lucelle was founded in 1123-1124 by the counts of Montfaucon, on land belonging to the Church of Basel. The site now lies in the French commune of Lucelle, in the Haut-Rhin. Standing on a language border, the abbey had about 200 monks around 1200. Bonmont, in the municipality of Chéserex, existed in 1123 and joined the Cistercian order in 1131, six years after a visit by Saint Bernard. Bishop Guy de Maligny founded Hautcrêt in 1134, on the territory of Les Tavernes, now part of Oron. Montheron, in the municipality of Lausanne, followed in 1135. William of Glâne founded Hauterive between 1132 and 1137, in a loop of the Sarine. The abbey was consecrated on 25 February 1138.

Among the Premonstratensians, the abbey of Lac de Joux, on the territory of the present municipality of L'Abbaye, was founded between 1126 and 1134 by Bishop Bartholomew of Laon, with the help of his brother Ebal of Grandson-La Sarraz. It became the mother house of Bellelay, founded around 1140, and of Humilimont, founded at Marsens between 1136 and 1141. Fontaine-André, in the municipality of Neuchâtel, was founded before 1143 by religious from Corneux, in the Haute-Saône. Lac de Joux and Humilimont began as double monasteries. Their communities of women were soon moved, to Rueyres near Chardonne around 1141 and to Posat around 1140/1148.

These abbeys worked their land through granges, large farms run by lay brothers. Hauterive had nine of them in the 12th century: in the Prealps for milk, on the Plateau for grain, on the shores of Lake Geneva for wine. From 1141, the Cistercians of Hautcrêt began creating a vineyard at the Dézaley. Hauterive also ran several mills along its canals, including a paper mill mentioned in 1445.

Charterhouses and convents of women

The Carthusians came later, to the valleys of the Gruyère. Girard I and Girard II of Corbières founded La Valsainte in 1295, on the territory of the present municipality of Val-de-Charmey. The charterhouse administered justice, including criminal justice, in the Javroz valley. In 1307, Guillemette of Grandson and her son Peter III, Count of Gruyère, founded La Part-Dieu on the slopes of the Moléson, in the municipality of Gruyères.

Women had their houses too. The abbey of La Maigrauge, in Fribourg, depended on Hauterive from 1261. In 1269, a group of women led by Juliette de Villa founded La Fille-Dieu near Romont. The convent was incorporated into the Cistercian order only in 1346-1348. It came through the Reformation, then the secularisation of 1848, which for a time took away its right to receive novices. That right was restored as early as 1856.

Monasteries as lords of villages

An abbey was not only a place of prayer. It owned land, collected tithes and often governed villages. Around Romainmôtier, the Pôté (from the Latin potestas) formed, as early as 1050, a single block of twelve villages. Its inhabitants had a particular status attested from 1266: free in their persons and property, they owed exclusive loyalty to the prior. If they took citizenship elsewhere, they had to leave the lordship and give up the monastery's land.

Bellelay held jurisdiction over a small lordship called the courtine, which mainly covered Fornet, Lajoux and Les Genevez. High justice there remained with the Bishop of Basel. The abbey also owned many parishes, including Boécourt, Bassecourt, Les Genevez, Tavannes and La Neuveville. At the end of the 12th century it founded a daughter house at Grandgourt, soon reduced to a priory.

The chapter of Moutier-Grandval held the seigneurial rights over the provostry of Moutier until the end of the 16th century. The chapter of Saint-Ursanne exercised lordship over the whole provostry of the same name. In Valais, the abbey of Saint-Maurice recovered lost estates after 1128, such as Salvan in 1138 and the provostry of Bagnes in 1143. Payerne, finally, had property in about a hundred places, from the Broye valley to the Vully and as far as Lake Geneva.

The gift of 999 had lasting effects. That year, King Rudolph III of Burgundy gave the abbey of Moutier-Grandval to the Bishop of Basel. The Historical Dictionary of Switzerland sees it as the origin of the later Prince-Bishopric of Basel.

1536: the Reformation closes the monasteries of Vaud

The conquest of Vaud by Bern in 1536 ended religious life in almost all the houses of Vaud. The Bernese secularised Romainmôtier on 27 January 1537. The prior's house became the castle of the Bernese bailiff. The abbey of Lac de Joux disappeared in 1536 and its property was secularised. At Hautcrêt, the buildings served as a hospital from about 1539 to 1554, then as the bailiff's residence, before disappearing for lack of upkeep. At Montheron, the town of Lausanne took over the liturgical objects, the archives and the estates.

The churches often survived thanks to secular uses. At Bonmont, the church was divided into a granary above a cellar, a cheese dairy, a bakery and a suspended chapel. In 1736 the Bernese built the bailiff's castle on the site of the monks' hospital. At Payerne, the abbey church served as a warehouse in the 17th and 18th centuries, then as a barracks, gymnasium, prison and archive in the 19th century. In Neuchâtel, Fontaine-André lost its last abbot in 1539. Its estate was leased out, then passed into private hands in 1784.

Abbeys in Catholic territory were not all spared either. Fribourg suppressed Humilimont in 1580, despite the monks' protests, to help the Jesuits settle in the town. In 1778 the Pope authorised the suppression of La Valsainte, whose monks moved to La Part-Dieu.

The Revolution and the 19th century

In the Jura, the French Revolution completed the process. The canons of Saint-Ursanne scattered before the formal suppression of their chapter in 1793. Bellelay, protected for a time by Swiss neutrality, was suppressed in December 1797, and its property was sold. The chapter of Moutier-Grandval, which had taken refuge in Delémont in 1534, ended in practice with the French invasion of 1797 and in law with the Concordat of 1801. Lucelle was declared national property in 1789 and sold. Its church was demolished, and foundries and forges occupied the site until 1882.

In the canton of Fribourg, the secularisation of 1848 hit Hauterive and La Part-Dieu. The manuscripts of Hauterive, the largest medieval collection held by any monastery in western Switzerland, went to Fribourg. The building housed an agricultural school in 1850, then the cantonal teacher-training college from 1859. The Carthusians, driven out of La Part-Dieu, took over La Valsainte in 1859 and rebuilt it between 1863 and 1868.

In the 20th century, some monks returned. Cistercians from Wettingen-Mehrerau settled at Hauterive in 1939, which became an abbey again in 1973. La Valsainte is today the last Carthusian monastery in Switzerland. At Saint-Maurice, the community came through all these periods. At the start of the 21st century it had about fifty members and ran a school of around a thousand pupils.

What can be seen today

Several abbey churches can be visited. At Payerne you can see the nave of 1070-1080, paintings in the narthex from around 1200 and Romanesque capitals. At Romainmôtier, the late 10th-century church was restored from 1899 to 1915 and again from 1992 to 2000. At Bonmont, the church was listed as a historic monument in 1942 and has belonged to the canton of Vaud since 1982. Its restoration was completed in 1995.

At Hauterive, the Romanesque parts of the cloister and church are among the earliest examples of Cistercian architecture. The choir stalls from the late 15th century were commissioned by Abbot Jean Philibert. At Bellelay, the Baroque church consecrated in 1714 has hosted exhibitions and concerts since 1963. The buildings served as a psychiatric hospital from 1899 to 2022. At Saint-Maurice, the church was renovated and enlarged after the rockfall of 1942, raised to the rank of basilica in 1948 and consecrated in 1949. The abbey treasury holds Merovingian and Carolingian pieces.

Other houses have almost vanished. Nothing remains of the Romanesque abbey church of Montheron, nor of the buildings of Hautcrêt. The name of the former abbey lives on, however, in that of the municipality of L'Abbaye, in the Vallée de Joux.

Abbeys and priories of French-speaking Switzerland

The first monasteries (5th to 7th century)

The age of Cluny (10th to 11th century)

Cistercians and Premonstratensians: the 12th-century wave

Charterhouses and convents of women

Monasteries as lords of villages

1536: the Reformation closes the monasteries of Vaud

The Revolution and the 19th century

What can be seen today

Places mentioned

Sources

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