Although everything here has a breath of serenity to it, the Romainmôtier story has new developments. This little town owes its creation - in 452 - to Saint Romain and Saint Lupicin, who came from Franche-Comté in order to found a monastery. The abbots and priors ran the establishment for four centuries before the monastery was controlled by the Cluny Abbey in the 10th C. The church's present shape is the result of six centuries of shared history with the Grand Burgundian Congregation. It influenced the Lombardic arcading, the majestic fore-nave and the 14th C. Gothic choir.

To celebrate its first millennium, this scale-model of Cluny underwent a complete make-over before the year 2000. The renovation still maintained a sense of simplicity and left the rough stone untouched, instead of trying to recreate a style based on rather incomplete historical sources. This intervention successfully highlights the red shades against the white Jura limestone, evidence of the presence of iron in this region. And within the church, there's an astonishing variety of colours on the vaults.

To see in the Church:

- the magnificent Galilee, the vestibule at the nave's entrance, which dates back to the 12th C.

- the nave, an example of the Romanesque purity and simplicity, its frescos, stained-glass windows and astonishing polychromatic vaults.

- the contrast between ancient and contemporary, with dark metal elements in different places of the Church. Even the famous « Romainmôtier ambo, » a 7th C. Merovingian stele of carved marble, leaning up against a metal stand. 

- And for the ears: free concerts on Sunday afternoons in July and August.

Photos: CCA

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