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Villages / Fribourg / Gruyère district / Chartreuse de la Part-Dieu

Chartreuse de la Part-Dieu

Site Canton of Fribourg · District: Gruyère · Former monastery, private property (municipality of Gruyères)
Part of the municipality of Gruyères
Origin of the name Founding Historical timeline Must-see historical sites Remains Sources and references Nearby villages

Origin of the name Chartreuse de la Part-Dieu

The Latin name, « Pars Dei », « God's share », recalls the founder, who set aside a share of her property for God. The house was dedicated to the Virgin Mary.[1][4]

Founding of Chartreuse de la Part-Dieu

In 1307 Guillemette de Grandson, widow of Count Peter II, and her son Peter III, Count of Gruyère, found the charterhouse as the mausoleum of their house. The countess had bought an isolated estate on the banks of the Trême, in a clearing on the slope of the Moléson at about 960 metres, and given it to the Carthusians to build a monastery. Gifts from the counts and purchases added forests and vineyards, with a house in Vevey. The estate's farms, forests and pastures, which reached the summit of the Moléson, supported the monks. La Part-Dieu was one of the six charterhouses of French-speaking Switzerland.[1][2][3][4]

History of Chartreuse de la Part-Dieu

1307. The Carthusians settle in the monastery founded by the countess.[1][2][3][4]

1555. The charterhouse comes under the guardianship of Fribourg, which keeps a close watch on it.[1][2]

1601. A fire destroys part of the buildings. The Fribourg government tries in vain to suppress the monastery, and again in the 18th century.[1][2]

1773. Fire ravages the charterhouse once more.[2]

1778. La Valsainte is suppressed, and its monks move to La Part-Dieu.[1][5]

1790. Forty-one monks fleeing the French Revolution find refuge at La Part-Dieu.[3]

1798. The French occupy the site.[1]

1800. A fire devastates the monastery, and the monks must leave until it is restored, in 1805. The house then takes in foreign Carthusians driven from their monasteries.[1][2]

1813. Prior Dom Romuald Moissonnier becomes head of the order and leaves to restore the Grande Chartreuse, near Grenoble.[3]

1817-1821. Dom Jean-Joseph Hermann, the « moine dormeur » (sleeping monk), is procurator of the house. An inventor and astronomer, he builds distance-measuring instruments and several astronomical clocks.[1][3]

1848. The monastery is suppressed. Its library and archives go to the State, and the buildings stand empty for eight years.[1][2][3]

1856. The estate and monastery buildings are sold. The Countess de Rumine acquires the property in 1858.[1][2]

1861. The Grand Council votes to re-establish the charterhouse, but the owner refuses and the plan fails.[1]

1862. The great cloister and the monks' small houses are almost entirely demolished.[1]

1871. La Part-Dieu is bequeathed to the Vaud banker François Clavel. His son Auguste Clavel (1844-1933) works to save the buildings, and the family has looked after the site ever since.[2][3]

1963. The Clavel descendants begin restoring the buildings.[2]

Historic sites in Chartreuse de la Part-Dieu

Central block, church and gatehouse. The central block and the church largely survived the demolitions of 1862. The former charterhouse, with its gatehouse and chapel, the former lay brothers' house and the mill ruins, is a cultural property of national importance. The site, a protected historic monument, is maintained by the Clavel family.[1][3][6]

Virgin and Child. At the north-east corner of the enclosure stands a Virgin and Child attributed to Jean-François Reyff, around 1655.[2]

Remains in Chartreuse de la Part-Dieu

Great cloister and cells. The great cloister and the small houses where the monks lived disappeared almost entirely in 1862. Only ruins remain of the mill.[1][6]

Dom Hermann's clock. The Comtoise clock built by Dom Jean-Joseph Hermann, dated 1798, shows the hours, minutes, days of the week, phases of the moon and signs of the zodiac, with ten alarms of different sounds. It is in the Musée gruérien in Bulle.[3]

Sources

  1. Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Part-Dieu, La » (Ernst Tremp, version du 27.09.2010)
  2. Inventaire suisse des biens culturels (PBC), fiche « Ancienne chartreuse de la Part-Dieu » (KGS 02196), texte du Guide artistique de la Suisse (SHAS)
  3. La Part-Dieu, « History »
  4. Commune de Gruyères, « Chartreuse de la Part-Dieu »
  5. Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Valsainte, La » (Peter F. Kopp, version du 11.11.2016)
  6. 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 Chartreuse de la Part-Dieu

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