La Cité de Saint-Trivier-de-Courtes

The city was born of a legend. In 539, the king of Austrasia, Theodebert (grandson of Clovis), returning from an expedition to Italy, took hostages in the territories he had crossed. Two rich young Dombists were thus taken and exiled to the north of France. The abbot of Wiserne, near Thérouanne (Pas-de-Calais), took pity on them, redeemed them and had them returned to their families by the monk Trivier. But on the way to the Dombes, the trio got lost in a vast forest, known as the "Memphis forest". The monk prayed to God to help them, and a wolf appeared and led them back to the right path. In gratitude, the family of the hostages gave the monk a piece of land, where he lived as a hermit and died a holy death in 550 (see Saint-Trivier-sur-Moignans). Trivier and the two young men were lost in the vicinity of Courtes, where a place of worship, placed under the name of the holy monk, was erected by a Lady of Bâgé who had dedicated a deep devotion to this saint.
Thus was built the old church of Saint-Trivier, which once stood in the present cemetery and which was destroyed around 1700, replaced as a parish church by the Notre-Dame chapel. The latter unfortunately suffered a fire that destroyed the spire of the bell tower in March 2020.
Also worth seeing: the carronnière de Molardoury (see fact sheet), the old hospice (whose origins date back to the Middle Ages), the octagonal tower of the prison and the remains of the ramparts, the 18th century Town Hall (former granary?), the old church and the new church. (former granary?), the former college and the Arquebuse house (18th century), the half-timbered houses...