Moutier-Grandval Abbey was a Benedictine abbey near the villages of Moutier and Grandval in today's Bernese Jura, Canton of Bern in Switzerland. It was founded around 640, when Grandval already existed; Moutier grew up around the abbey.
Moutier-Grandval Abbey was a Benedictine abbey near the villages of Moutier and Grandval in today's Bernese Jura, Canton of Bern in Switzerland. It was founded around 640, when Grandval already existed; Moutier grew up around the abbey.
The abbey was founded as a dependency of Luxeuil Abbey, on land granted by Gundoin, Duke of Alsace on the old route leading to the Pierre Pertuis Pass. The abbot of Luxeuil, Saint Waldebert, sent Saint Germanus of Granfelden, who served 35 years as the first abbot, with Saint Randoald of Grandval as his prior. Both were martyred in 675 by Adalrich, Duke of Alsace after they protested against his expulsion of the population of the Sorgenau valley. The abbey became, like some others, the secular ruler of a local territory, and by the 9th or 10th century had property and influence all the way to Lake Biel and into the Balsthal valley, but was regarded as a fief of the king of Burgundy. There was to be a long history of disputes over the property and privileges of the abbey, which later fell under the Dukes of Burgundy, who provided lay abbots, the priors or provosts being the senior monks. In 968 Conrad of Burgundy granted the abbey "in benefice" to Count Luitfrid, who then divided the property among his sons as though it had been granted in proprium, as property. After a court case it was returned to the king. In 999, Rudolph III of Burgundy presented the bishop of Basel with the abbey and its 540 square miles of lands, [1] establishing the Prince-Bishopric of Basel as a secular territory; disputes with the Prince-bishops were to continue. According to legend, Bellelay Abbey was founded as a dependency in 1136, but as this belonged to the new Premonstratensian order the story seems unlikely. The abbey owned Corgémont, Tavannes and Perrefitte and other properties. From 1486 the abbey was also part of the Protectorate of Bern in the Old Swiss Confederacy, while remaining subject to Basel. From 1475 the Alsatian-born chronicler Johann Burchard, living in Rome, was provost.
After the Swiss Reformation, the monks fled to Delémont, and between 1534-1792 the parish church there also served as their church. The arrival of French Revolutionary armies in 1792 ended both abbey and Prince-bishopric, and the buildings of the abbey have now disappeared, although some 12th century remains of buildings were discovered under the town in 2008. [2] However the small chapelle de Chalière, now serving as the cemetery chapel at Perrefitte, is a Carolingian building with faded 11th century wall-paintings that was built by the abbey. [3] The major relics of the abbey were taken to Delémont at the Reformation, and the church there still has the bodies of Saints Germanus and Randoald, while the museum has Germanus's reputed cross (metal and enamel over wood, perhaps 9th century on older wood), sandals, and chalice (13th century, silver-gilt). [4]
The Moutier-Grandval Bible is an illuminated manuscript bible of about 840, which was probably written in Tours, France, perhaps specially for the abbey. It was owned by them until the dissolution in the French Revolutionary Wars, when it was apparently forgotten and found in Delémont by children. It is now in the British Library (MS Addl. 10546). There are three full pages with miniatures, two showing scenes from the Book of Genesis: the story of Adam and Eve over several registers like a "strip cartoon", Moses receiving the Tablets of the Law and teaching them to the Israelites in two scenes, and an allegorical page with two scenes at the end of the book. [5] A facsimile was published in 1971 (Die Bibel von Moutier-Grandval, ed. J. Duft, Bern 1971).
Year 675 (DCLXXV) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 675 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Delémont is the capital of the Swiss canton of Jura. The city has approximately 12,000 inhabitants as of 2013.
Moutier is a municipality in Switzerland. Currently, the town belongs to the Jura bernois administrative district of the canton of Bern. On 28 March 2021, the population voted to secede from the canton of Bern and join the Canton of Jura; the decision however is not immediately operative and entails a lengthy process of transfer of competences between cantonal authorities.
The Archdiocese of Besançon is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. It comprises the département of Doubs and the département of Haute-Saône.
The Diocese of Sion is a Catholic ecclesiastical territory in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. It is the oldest bishopric in the country and one of the oldest north of the Alps. The history of the Bishops of Sion, of the Abbey of St. Maurice of Valais as a whole are inextricably intertwined.
Payerne Priory was a Cluniac monastery at Payerne, in Vaud, Switzerland. The monastery is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.
Saint Randoald was prior of the Benedictine Moutier-Grandval Abbey under Germanus of Granfelden.
Col de Pierre Pertuis is a mountain pass in the Jura Mountains in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
Murbach Abbey was a famous Benedictine monastery in Murbach, southern Alsace, in a valley at the foot of the Grand Ballon in the Vosges.
Bellelay Abbey is a former Premonstratensian monastery in the Bernese Jura in Switzerland, now a psychiatric clinic. It is a heritage site of national significance and the entire former Abbey complex is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
Gundoin was the first Duke of Alsace in the middle of the seventh century. He was a Frankish nobleman from the Meuse-Moselle basin. He was, according to the author of the Vita Sadalbergae, an "illustrious man, opulent in wealth and fame according to the highest secular dignity and skilled in courtly affairs."
Adalrich, also known as Eticho, was the Duke of Alsace, the founder of the family of the Etichonids and of the Habsburg, and an important and influential figure in the power politic of late-seventh-century Austrasia.
Saint Germanus of Granfelden (* ca. 612 in Trier; † 675 near Moutier was the first abbot of Moutier-Grandval Abbey.
Waldalenus, or Wandalenus, dux in the region between the Alps and the Jura, in the Frankish Kingdom of Burgundy, was a Frankish magnate who served as mayor of the Austrasian palace at Metz from 581, during the minority of Childebert II.
The Prince-Bishopric of Basel was an ecclesiastical principality within the Holy Roman Empire, ruled from 1032 by prince-bishops with their seat at Basel, and from 1528 until 1792 at Porrentruy, and thereafter at Schliengen. As an imperial estate, the prince-bishop had a seat and voting rights at the Imperial Diet. The final dissolution of the state occurred in 1803 as part of the German Mediatisation.
Jakob Christoph Blarer von Wartensee was a Bishop of Basel and a leader in the Counter-Reformation in the region around Basel.
Valbirse is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura.
Petit-Val is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura. On 1 January 2015 the former municipalities of Châtelat, Monible, Sornetan and Souboz merged to form the new municipality of Petit-Val.
The Bèze Abbey, was a monastery founded in 629 AD in Burgundy, France. It was destroyed several times during the next three centuries by Frankish warlords, Saracens, Normans and Hungarians. At the end of the 10th century the abbey was re-founded and entered a golden age for the next two centuries. By the 13th century the spiritual life of the abbey had declined and the monks were mainly concerned with temporal matters. The abbey lost most of its monks during the Hundred Years' War and the Black Death of the 14th century. In 1429 it was fortified with stone walls, a moat and towers, two of which have survived. The abbey was again devastated by feuds in 1513, by the French Wars of Religion (1562–98) and by the Thirty Years' War (1618–48).
The Basel–Biel/Bienne railway line is a standard gauge railway line of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) and the BLS AG. It runs from Basel SBB along the Birs in the French-speaking Jura to Delémont and Biel/Bienne. The traffic on the line is shown in table 230 of the official timetable.
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