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Villages / Valais / Martigny district / Ecône

Ecône

Canton of Valais · District: Martigny · No published figure for the locality. The municipality of Riddes has 3'830 inhabitants (31.12.2025, provisional FSO figure)
Part of the municipality of Riddes
Origin of the name Founding Historical timeline Must-see historical sites Sources and references Nearby villages

Origin of the name Ecône

The name Ecône has no known etymology, and no dated early form of it is found.

Founding of Ecône

Ecône, a locality of the municipality of Riddes, was first a farming estate. Around 1302 the provost of the Great St Bernard, Jean de Duin, bought the Ecône estate near Riddes, with its meadows, fields and forest. The canons of the Great St Bernard kept it until 1968 and ran the canton's first agricultural school there from 1892 to 1922. They then chose for the chapel the old dedication of Notre-Dame des Champs. The five laymen who bought the estate in 1968 later reached an agreement with Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who founded the Priestly Fraternity of St Pius X in 1970 and whose seminary settled at Ecône. The site also has a power station of the Forces motrices de Mauvoisin.[1][2][3][4]

History of Ecône

around 1302. The provost of the Great St Bernard, Jean de Duin, buys the Ecône estate, with meadows, fields and forest.[2]

1892-1922. The canons of the Great St Bernard run the canton's first agricultural school at Ecône.[1]

1968. On 19 April the chapter of the Great St Bernard agrees to sell the estate for 410'000 francs to five laymen, including State Councillor Guy Genoud, to prevent a nightspot from opening there. The deed is signed on 31 May.[3]

1970. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre founds the Priestly Fraternity of St Pius X.[4]

1974. The Fraternity's seminary, moved to Ecône, receives a canonical visitation.[4]

1988. On 30 June, before 7'000 to 8'000 pilgrims, Archbishop Lefebvre consecrates four bishops at Ecône without a papal mandate, which entails their excommunication.[4][5]

1991. Archbishop Lefebvre dies at Ecône on 25 March and is buried there.[4]

Historic sites in Ecône

St Pius X seminary. Seminary of the Priestly Fraternity of St Pius X, set in the former estate of the canons of the Great St Bernard.[3][4]

Power station. Ecône power station, operated by the Forces motrices de Mauvoisin.[1]

Sources

  1. Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Riddes » (Bernard Monnet), version du 11.05.2012
  2. Léon Dupont Lachenal, « Sainte-Marie de Belmont, une dépendance vaudoise de l'Hospice du Grand-Saint-Bernard » (1979), document numérisé par RERO DOC
  3. FSSPX.News, « 50e anniversaire de l'achat d'Ecône »
  4. FSSPX.News, « Notice biographique de Mgr Marcel Lefebvre »
  5. Larousse, Journal de l'année 1989, « Écône : les sacres de la rupture »
  6. Office fédéral de la statistique (OFS), STATPOP, chiffres provisoires au 31.12.2025, via citypopulation.de
  7. geo.admin.ch, service de recherche de swisstopo (Ecône)

Other villages near Ecône

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