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Villages / Fribourg / Gruyère district / Abbaye d'Humilimont

Abbaye d'Humilimont

Site Canton of Fribourg · District: Gruyère · Uninhabited site (municipality of Marsens)
Part of the municipality of Marsens
Origin of the name Founding Historical timeline Must-see historical sites Remains Sources and references Nearby villages

Origin of the name Abbaye d'Humilimont

Also called the abbey of Marsens, Humilimont was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Saint Peter and Saint Martin. The name Humilimont itself remains unexplained.[1]

Founding of Abbaye d'Humilimont

The abbey came into being between 1136 and 1141, founded by William II of Corbières, who had taken part in 1126 in founding Lac de Joux, Humilimont's mother abbey. The foundation notice, known only from certified copies, is probably a forgery. The tradition taken up by the municipality of Marsens credits the founding, in 1137, to the lords Anselme, Guy and Boucard of Marsens, of the house of Everdes-Vuippens, a view now set aside. Humilimont belonged to the circary of Burgundy. It began as a double monastery, for Premonstratensian canons and nuns.[1][3][4]

History of Abbaye d'Humilimont

1126. William II of Corbières takes part in founding the abbey of Lac de Joux, later the mother house of Humilimont.[1]

1136-1141. William II of Corbières founds Humilimont (between 1137 and 1141, according to another source).[1][4]

Around 1140-1148. The nuns are moved to Posat, some eight kilometres away. Forty-seven sisters, among them Prioress Emma, appear in the necrology, and the house disappears between 1179 and 1228.[1][4]

Mid-13th century. Worked until then by lay brothers, the abbey's estates are from now on leased out.[1]

1338. In July the abbey's necrology is copied from a lost older text. It will be kept up until the suppression.[1][4]

14th-15th centuries. The Everdes-Vuippens, then the Langin-d'Everdes are the abbey's advocates, and relations are often strained. Decline sets in around 1450.[1][3]

1475. After the conquest of the lordship of Everdes, the advocacy passes to the city of Fribourg.[1]

1482. Fribourg admits Humilimont to its citizenship. In the 16th century the city has growing influence over the election of abbots.[1]

1580. On 21 February, at the request of the nuncio Bonhomini and the Fribourg government, Pope Gregory XIII suppresses the abbey despite protests from the monks and the order. On 21 December Peter Canisius comes to Marsens to take possession of the estate for the Jesuits.[1][2][3]

1641-1642. The Jesuits have the chapel of Saint-Ignace, known as « la Rotonde », built.[2]

1845. A memorial cross marks the abbey's original site.[4]

1848. The lands of the former abbey, now held by the State of Fribourg, are secularised.[2][3]

1872-1880. The cantonal psychiatric hospital is built on these lands. The asylum opens in 1875.[2][3]

Historic sites in Abbaye d'Humilimont

Chapel of Saint-Ignace, « la Rotonde ». Built by the Jesuits in 1641-1642 on the abbey's former estate, the chapel is a cultural property of national importance.[2][5]

Humilimont cross. Since 1845 a cross has recalled the place where the abbey stood.[4]

Hospital and farm estate. The lower part of the former estate holds the cantonal psychiatric hospital, whose general services building of the old asylum is listed as a cultural property (category B). The remaining land, as far as Malessert in Sorens, forms a farm of the Grangeneuve agricultural institute.[3][5]

Remains in Abbaye d'Humilimont

Estates and churches. The abbey owned fields, vineyards and granges at Marsens, Mollettes, Posat, La Bruyère, Hauteville and in the Dézaley, as well as the churches of Vuippens and Villarvolard, which the canons seldom served themselves.[1]

The necrology. The necrology of 1338, held in the State Archives of Fribourg, names about 900 people, including 147 lay people, among them the counts of Gruyère and the Corbières. It shows the social variety of the community and those close to it. The diary of Claude Fracheboud, the second-to-last abbot, has also survived.[1][4]

Sources

  1. Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Humilimont » (Kathrin Utz Tremp, version du 22.01.2026)
  2. Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Marsens (FR) » (Alain-Jacques Czouz-Tornare, version du 17.09.2009)
  3. Commune de Marsens, « Histoire »
  4. Gilbert Coutaz, compte rendu de « Das Nekrologium der Prämonstratenser-Abtei Humilimont (Marsens) », Revue suisse d'histoire 74/1 (2024), p. 116
  5. Office fédéral de la protection de la population, « Révision Inventaire PBC 2021 : Liste cantonale Canton de FR » (état au 1.1.2026)

Other villages near Abbaye d'Humilimont

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