Abbatiale de Payerne, Cluny hors du royaume

Payerne

Between 961 and 965, Adelaide of Burgundy — daughter of King Rudolf II and of Bertha of Swabia, queen of Italy and then empress — had a priory of Notre-Dame built on the site of the Roman villa of the Paterniacus, which she intended for Cluniac obedience. In the following century the second church was built there, the one visited today: a Romanesque vessel built on the Cluniac scheme, capitals many of which have kept their paint, a side chapel enlarged in flamboyant Gothic in 1513. Odilo, fifth abbot of Cluny, stayed regularly in the region and exercised here all the powers attached to the dignity of abbot, so much so that he is often called abbot of Payerne — without any source formally attesting it. Two fires, in 1235 and in 1420, did not prevent the house from prospering: kings of Burgundy and then Germanic emperors heaped gifts on it, and a town formed around it. The link with Cluny came to an end in 1444, when the priory was raised to an abbey. The Bernese imposed the Reformation in 1536 and closed the monastery in 1565; the church became a granary, a bell foundry, a billet, a prison. The cloister was destroyed. There remain the abbey church, the chapter house and the dormitory wing. More than a thousand graves have been excavated in and around the precinct.

Wikipédia — Abbatiale de Payerne ↗

Getting there : Payerne is served by rail from Lausanne and Fribourg; the abbey church is in the centre, five minutes from the station. It is no longer used for worship: it is a museum devoted to the history and the architecture of the building, open on a seasonal calendar, entrance ticket.

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

Ambient sound