Abbaye de Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval

Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval

At the head of the upper Giffre valley, facing the streaming walls of the cirque du Fer-à-Cheval, the village of Sixt grew up around a mountain abbey. In 1144, Ponce de Faucigny, a canon from the powerful family of the lords of Faucigny, left the abbey of Abondance to found here, in a valley then reputed wild and inhospitable, a community of canons following the Rule of Saint Augustine; he became its first abbot. Around the monastery the canons cleared the land, opened tracks and took in travellers venturing towards the Alpine passes: for centuries the abbey was the beating heart of the valley, and the memory of Blessed Ponce, venerated locally, is still alive there. Sold as national property at the Revolution, the buildings met varied fortunes: the engineer Albanis Beaumont acquired part of them to revive mines, then from 1821 the Cochet family kept "the best inn in the country" there, which under the Rannaud family became the Hôtel du Fer à Cheval et de l'Abbaye, a favoured halt for the first alpinists and Romantic travellers. The abbey church, now the parish church, preserves the imprint of eight centuries of prayer; the abbot's house, bought by the Département of Haute-Savoie in 2000, is being restored to tell this story of monks and mountains. From the abbey, the road leads in a few minutes to the "end of the world" at the Fer-à-Cheval and its thirty waterfalls.

Getting there : Centre of the village of Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval, at the head of the Giffre valley, 6 km beyond Samoëns by the D907; car park in the village. The road continues to the cirque du Fer-à-Cheval.

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

Ambient sound