Bellevaux Abbey

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This article is not about the Bellevaux Abbey near Limanton, Nièvre, France, nor the abbey near Lausanne, Switzerland

Bellevaux Abbey was a Cistercian monastery, founded in 1120 by Pons de Morimond^[1], near present-day Cirey, Haute-Saône, France. At that time it was in Franche-Comté. It was suppressed in 1790, and destroyed in 1795 on the orders of Jean-Charles Pichegru, who had bought it.

It was a daughter foundation of Morimond Abbey. Peter of Tarentaise died there, as he arrived at the abbey in 1174, giving it his relics. These were for long disputed by Tamié Abbey.^[2]

It had strong connections to the local nobles. Otto de la Roche gave Bellevaux the sacked Daphni Monastery^[3] shortly after 1205. It was sacked in 1474 by French troops, and burned in 1636 by troops from Weimar. The bishop of Evreux took it over in 1762.

Eugene Huvelin (d. 1828) bought it in 1817, and installed a religious community.^[4]^[5]