Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Baume-les-Messieurs

Baume-les-Messieurs

You must go down to the head of a reculée, between cliffs that close in like joined hands, to find one of the most decisive abbeys in the monastic history of the West. Tradition attributes its foundation in the 6th century to Saint Columbanus or to Saint Lothain — historians remain cautious — but the 9th-century texts are clear: King Louis III entrusted a cella to Abbot Berno. And it is from here that everything changed. Around 909–910, Berno left Baume with six of his monks, joined by six brothers from Gigny, to go and found in Burgundy a small abbey called Cluny — the one that would become the head of a spiritual empire of a thousand monasteries and the symbol of the monastic revival of the 10th century. Baume itself prospered, then dozed off: its monks became noble canons, so that Baume-les-Moines ended up being called Baume-les-Messieurs. The Revolution scattered everything; the cloister was demolished in 1806, and it took the intervention of Prosper Mérimée for the church to be listed as early as 1849. Today one admires there an unexpected masterpiece: a great Flemish altarpiece given in 1525, twenty-five oak panels telling the life of Christ across nearly six metres. All around, the reculée offers one of the finest landscapes in the Jura: petrifying waterfall, caves, dizzying belvederes. A place where stone, water and eleven centuries of prayer hold together.

Getting there : Village reached by the D70 from Lons-le-Saunier or Voiteur; abbey church open to visitors (private parts can be visited in season); reculée trail of 8.7 km (3 h 30) starting from the village. Coordinates: village centre, the abbey is a few dozen metres away.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound