Chartreuse de Sélignac

In a valley between Simandre and Corveissiat sits this noble building.

In Gallo-Roman times, a rich landowner, "Selenius", built a "villa" near the present-day spring of Selignac.
Also called "Val St Martin", this valley with its spring also recalls the main Saint Christian "St Martin", former soldier of Rome who was one of the first priests around the beginning of the 4th century AD in Gaul. In these times, the Celtic and Gallo-Roman cults were gradually replaced by new beliefs. It is possible that the Val St Martin was a Celtic water cult.
Today the chartreuse is built above the spring.

At the end of the 12th century, the Sirerie de Coligny extended over the Revermont, from Coligny to Pont d'Ain. On 14 September 1201, Hugues II de Coligny, Lord of Marboz and Treffort, took up the Cross to go on the 4th Crusade. A few months later, with the agreement of his wife, the duchess Beatrice, he gave everything he owned in the parish of Sélignac to the Carthusian monastery of Seillon with a view to founding a new Carthusian monastery, for the repose of his soul and those of his ancestors. On 8 October, he embarked for Venice. He died in September 1205, defending Serrai, a small town covering Salonika in the north.

In order to build the Carthusian monastery and to guarantee the desert (zone of silence), the village of Sélignac was destroyed and moved to the bridge of Marcou 1 km to the west. Today the village no longer exists, the village of Simandre sur Suran, even further south of the Charterhouse, was preferred for the long-term development of a town.

From 1211 to 2009, Carthusian monks lived in Sélignac.
Today, lay people offer seminars "in the silence of the Charterhouse".

Please respect the site. Private access.
Viewpoint from the Arnans rocks.