13. Luxeuil-les-Bains to Annegray

Around 593, Colomban and his companions obtained permission from King Childebert to found a new monastery in the castrum of Luxovium.

It is likely that the first monastic buildings were located on the site of today's abbey. The various reconstruction works carried out on the abbey have erased all traces of the original monastery buildings.

The current monastic complex was built in the 17th and 18th centuries as part of a restructuring of the monastic movement initiated by the reform of Saint-Vanne and Saint-Hydulphe.

After having housed a minor seminary and then a private college until 2024, Luxeuil Abbey is now privately owned and will soon be hosting European congresses, conferences and other events, as well as pilgrims on the Via Columbani.

The architecture of the Abbey and its past, steeped in prayer and manual and intellectual work, provide an ideal setting for reflection, silence and rejuvenation. Tours are organised by the Vosges du Sud Tourist Office.

More information : Wikipedia

The Morbief was dug by the monks of the Abbey of Luxeuil in the 12th century to supply water to the monastery's tanneries. A stream used to run through the lower part of the town, it was fed by the springs of the Banney forest that you will cross at the beginning of your stage. The Morbief's water intake is upstream in the Breuchin valley at La Lie aux Moines and crosses the town to join the Breuchin towards the west. From the 18th century onwards, the canal was used as a source of hydraulic power for the first ironworks. Today it has become a place for walking.
In order to have a regular flow of the canal the monks built the Etang de la Poche, still active for the regulation of the canal, and the Etang Saint-Valbert, which has now disappeared.

Of all the men who illustrated Luxeuil Abbey, Saint Valbert is without doubt the one who had the greatest influence and whose memory has been best preserved.
Around 620, a young lord on horseback, fully armed, presented himself to the monastery in front of Abbot Eustaise. He wanted to flee the world and devote his life entirely to the service of God: his name was Valbert or Waldebert (in the popular language Vaubert or Gaubert).
According to the monk Adson who wrote his life 250 years after his death, the future Saint retired as a hermit in the forest 5 km from the monastery of Luxeuil. This is where the monks of Luxeuil came to get him in 630, after the death of Abbot Eustaise. Valbert succeeded him, continuing the work of his predecessor, a disciple of Saint Colomban. Under the abbatiate of these two abbots, the monks of Luxeuil swarmed several dozen monasteries in Gaul during the 7th and 8th centuries. This site was saved from oblivion and embellished by Doctor Gilles Cugnier, president of the Association of Friends of Saint Colomban in the 1960s.

The composition of the sandstone found in these forests is specific for sharpening edged weapons. For many centuries man has been extracting grinding stones from the rocks outcropping in these woods. After the extraction there remains a bowl in the rock and local legends have assimilated the sites to the tales of witches or sorcerers who sacrifice animals during occult rituals. In previous centuries, these stories told by hearth corners on local farms replaced today's television.

A vast territory that requires several days to discover many secrets.
The topology of this place is the consequence of the retreat of the last ice age (minus 10,000 years). The ponds are the result of cavities left by the glaciers, man will create pockets of water rich in fish to feed in winter. The Irish monks who accompanied Colomban developed fish farming. The presence of natural ponds for such a long time has developed peat. Farmers have been able to exploit all the qualities of peat for heating, insulation and construction.
Calvaries and crosses are still numerous. They bear witness to a significant presence of peasants until the beginning of the 20th century who wanted to pay tribute to an event that took place there. The arrival of agricultural mechanization made some crosses disappear in crossroads where agricultural machinery could not manoeuvre.
The stone crosses exhibited on the site of Annegray Priory were donated by farmers who wanted to move crossroads crosses.
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The Haute-Saône local railways are a former network of secondary departmental railways with metre gauge tracks, operated by the Compagnie Générale des Chemins de Fer Vicinaux (CFV), which in 1888 took over from the Compagnie du Chemin de Fer de Gray à Gy, concessionaire of the line of the same name since 1871, but then in bankruptcy. The train running on this network is locally and colloquially nicknamed ‘le tacot’ (the old banger).

The Saint Roch Chapel was built in 1636 on the very spot where the victims of the plague were buried. A burial mound marks the site of their graves. It was a simple wooden chapel that was gradually abandoned. When cholera began to rage in 1853, the inhabitants and those of the neighbouring villages vowed to rebuild it. The plague spared the valley, and the current chapel was built.