Cherlieu Abbey

With the support of Renaud III, Count of Burgundy, it soon flourished, the monks numbering several hundred.

Cherlieu was the mother house of two abbeys in what is now Switzerland - Hauterive (1132) and Haut-Crêt (1143) - as well as others in France: Acey (1136), Le Gard (1137) and Beaulieu-en-Bassigny (1166).

Cherlieu owned several granges, wine cellars, mills and ovens.

In the 15th century the abbey was attacked by the Écorcheurs; in 1569 it was set on fire by Protestants under Wolfgang von Zweibrücken.

Of the 105-metre-long church, built in transitional style in the 13th century, all that remains is an imposing fragment of the wall of the northern transept.