Bèze

Bèze is a common French, located in the department of the Coast-with Or and the area Burgundy.

Geography

Bèze is located at 30 km in the North-East of Dijon and at 30 km in the south of Langres. The bus n°34 of the Transco company passes 3 times by day (1st takes us along to Dijon to 7:00, 2 buses cross in Bèze with 13:00 (one takes us along to Dijon, the other in Gray), finally the last brings back to us to Bèze to 19:00).

Administration

Demography

Sources,

Graph of the evolution of the population 1793-2006

In 2006, the population of Bèze rises with 709 inhabitants.

History

Origins of Bèze

Bèze (comes from Latin bezua) owes its name with its situation close to the source of a river. This place was called by Celts BEZV or BEDW which mean “source or river with its birth”.

One is unaware of if this place were inhabited before our era. Gaulois Celtes settled in our area.

The Roman conquest brought the creation of important roads. The way Agrippa built towards 1e year before Jesus Christ connected Langres to Geneva. Medals of Adrien, Faustine and Constance were discovered but it is not known if the Romans lived Bèze.

Cruel invasions

In Burgundy, the decline of the Romans attracted “barbarians” come from Germanic: “Burgondes”. They invaded our territory, which would have given him the name of Burgundy.

This word is composed of 2 parts: Borough: because these people gather in borough. ogne: who means “borough of the gods”. Borough indicates also a strengthened place, a borough being always closed walls. The remainder being a suburb. Gund does not designate the gods, but means " guerre" , " combat". Burgund indicates the lifestyle of Burgondes: warriors gathered in a strengthened borough, charged with taking care of the safety of a territory. It is about the birth of the seigniories (to read the publications of the Burgundian writer Breton-Leroy Etienne, which refer today)

The site of Bèze was a place inhabited and flourishing at the time Gallo-Roman but this one was devastated and ruined by the many incursions of the German barbarians.

The Roman Emperor Constancy Chlorinates, after having beaten about the year the 300 barbarians come to the doors from Langres, decided to install part of overcome, Attuariens, on the edges of the Saone, of the Seine, of the Bast, Bèze and Vingeanne. The goal of this installation was to populate and cultivate the vast country ranging between these rivers

The foundation

The written history of Bèze starts with the foundation of the Abbey known as of Bèze-Fountain. The history of the village and the abbey are then closely dependant.

In 628, Dagobert becomes king de Bourgogne and of Neustrie with died of his/her father Clotaire II. Advised by Saint-Eloi, Saint-Ouen and Saint-Didier, it decides to restore the royal authority and comes to Burgundy to affirm its capacity. It is called “the good king” by the people. But to sit its authority, he asks three large lords, the Amalgaire dukes, Arnebert and Willibaud to assassinate Burnulfe, the uncle of his brother. Once returned in Paris, good king Dagobert regrets his action and to repurchase its sins near God, it royally rewards the three lords who helped it. Each one of them receives vast grounds.

The duke Amalgaire receives the ground of Fons Besua and in order to repurchase its faults, it decides to build a monastery there. Waldalene, one of its three sons, is named abbot of Bèze.

Bèze is the fourth mérovingienne abbey created in the diocese of Langres. As of its creation, the abbey is equipped with considerable goods. They has and has under its authority the villages of Viévigne, Beire, Treige, Spoy, Oisilly, Blagny, Crimolois. It has 12 vineyard plots with Marsannay the Coast and other vines with Couchey and Beaune. It also has grounds with Dijon, Longvic, Chenôve, Prenois, Daix and a large vineyard with Gevrey with serfs and servants. In 655, the abbey has a monastic school.

Life of the monks in the High Middle Ages

Prayer and work: the whole life of the monks is rythmée by this rate. Seven offices order the day and the monks have sleep very little.

In winter (from November at Easter), they are lifted to a height of two hours of the morning to sing the night ones then go up to complete their night. They are washed with the laundrette then gain their stall in the chorus. They have two hours of reading then work 7 hours of at a stretch. Then takes place the meal followed by readings.

In summer (of Easter to November) they work hard 6 a.m. of the morning at 10 a.m. They have then two hours of reading and their meal. Then they will make a nap or reading then turns over to work until the evening meal which takes place before the night.

Their work: They cultivate the fields or the vines. They maintain the gardens, the orchards; they repair, build and arrange the buildings. They plow, harvest, lead the cattle to the meadows and the pourceaux ones to glandée. They were farmers, loggers, millers, bakers and masons.

The abstinence and sobriety were the base of the rule of Saint-Beno4it cheese and the meat was reserved to the patients.

They nourished oats or barley pulp, vegetables, of mashed potatoes of pea or broad beans and fruits. They were entitled also to cress, salt, bread and a half-liter of wine per day.

The rations were doubled the feastdays and were decorated eggs, fish and cheeses.

Clothing: they carried a tunic teases some which went to semi-leg and carried over runs which was a dress wide and floating which went to the feet and had long sleeves. The abbot distributed to them their clothing with a handkerchief, a comb of wood, a knife, a needle, wire, a stylet and a shelf to write.

They slept very equipped with a serge cloth, a cover and a pillow.

Silence was of absolute rigor. These Benedictines without barb had the shaven head except for a crown of hair to the top of the ears.

The punishments were severe for those which disobeyed and were even body.

The elected abbot had authority on all.

Plagues and calamities from 660 to 937

In spite of its richnesses, the life in the monastery of Bèze is precarious and hard. The monks must cleanse the marshy grounds and dam up the river to preserve floods. But the monks are not at the end of their sorrows because between 660 and 937 the abbey is destroyed 7 times. Towards 660, the duke Amalgaire dies. The grounds of the abbey are devastated, the Francs are in constant dissension. The abbey is put at bag. In order to protect it, Waldalène obtains the support of the king Clotaire III. The abbey finds its goods as of 666.

In 676, the abbey is devastated one second time by the Vandals. The duke félon who carried out them was stripped of his goods and those were given to the abbey. Towards 731, Buckwheats reach Bèze. The monastery as well as the area are devastated. Autun is destroyed the same year. Charles Martel stops them in Poitiers. In 752, Pépin the Brief gives to his/her Remi half-brother several abbeys in Burgundy. Remi entrusts the abbey of Bèze to his favorite Angla. She spends the richnesses of the abbey and the ruin. Then the abbey is deserted because of an epidemic of plague or cholera.

In 888, it is the invasion Norman. The five monks, a priest and a child remained on the spot to defend the abbey are killed. The Norman ones devastate, ransack and devastate all on their passage. The old cave is used as shelter to the men of the village and to the monks who hid there. A terrible famine takes place after the departure of Norman because their army had destroyed harvests. The abbey is deserted.

In 900, the abbey is restored, it is surrounded by fortifications. In 935-936, the Hungarians enter to Burgundy, they put fire at the abbey while passing. In 937, the Hungarians return and set fire to again the abbey which is destroyed basic in roof. An immense famine succeeds the general ruin. The abbey will remain deserted during 51 years.

Rebirth and apogee

In 988, the abbey is devastated and invaded by grasses. The monk Guillaume de Volpiano finds a patron in the person of Raoul the White, Viscount of Dijon which devotes its immense fortune for the rebuilding of the monastery. He obliges the monks to study. The Guillaume abbot leaves to Rome and returns with a team of artists specialized in all kinds. Schools of painting, sculpture, architecture, cabinet work as well as schools of letters and scribes open in Bèze. The library, destroyed by the Norman ones, starts to be reconstituted and to grow rich.

It is at that time that the vault Saint-Careful is built. Guillaume de Volpiano dies in 1025. In 1033, a named cheating abbot with Bèze tries to waste the richnesses of the abbey. But its plundering is uncovered by the peasants of the village. The name of Fountain of Bèze disappears for that from Saint Pierre de Bèze.

In 1119, the Pascal pope visits Bèze; the Saint-Remi church is entirely rebuilt and the abbey increases its inheritance thanks to many donations. Fairs take place with Bèze and have a great success. In 1198, the abbey flames as well as part of the borough.

In 1209, the abbey is surrounded by walls with ditches and drawbridge. The monastery is called the castle. But the abbey is involved in debt and had to sell its vines of closed of Bèze. The people are crushed under said, the taxable quotas, and the innumerable sizes and drudgeries. On the other hand, the middle-class grew rich thanks to the trade and was informed in the schools rested by the monastery. The school of the monastery takes a great expansion. As children entrusted as of 11 - 12 years disturbed monastic silence, the monks decide to transfer a part from it outside. A school informing the children who were not intended for the Church is built. Many industries are created or developed: tanneries of fuller of barks or cloths, furnaces, oil mills, mills, tileries.

In 1250 Bèze has a leper-house but the patients are too numerous. Then the monks commit themselves settling the debt of the leper-house and deal with perpetuity its maintenance.

The One hundred Year old war

The king of France Charles IV died without heir. Philippe VI and Edouard III of England claim with the throne. As from 1337, France and England are opposed in a long made conflict of violent periods and periods of peace: the One hundred Year old war. This war turns quickly to the disaster for the king of France. It is overcome in Crécy (1346) and it loses the town of Calais.

In 1347, the Black Death makes its appearance and devastates France during three years. In 1350, Jean II the Good succeeds his father Philippe IV. He is made prisoner with the battle of Poitiers in 1356 and is obliged to deliver a third of France to the English by the treaty of Brétigny in 1360.

In 1364, Charles V succeeds his father. He takes again almost all the grounds given to the English. Burgundy is put at evil by the large companies, these bands of adventurers and abroad fired in 1360 by king Edouard of England. It is only into 1369 that Of Guesclin, knight celebrates it, manages to get rid some.

In 1379, the war begins again. The population of Bèze counts nothing any more but 111 men and women. The abbey is involved in debt. The old fortifications became ineffective. Poverty settles.

The new king Charles VI is 12 years old with died of his father and it is regularly reached crises of madness. The Burgundian Jean without Peur enters in conflict with the duke of Orleans which is the brother of Charles VI. The civil war bursts between the Armagnacs and the Burgundian ones. The Burgundian ones are combined with the English who benefit from the situation to crush the French with Azincourt (1415). To the disastrous treaty of Troyes (1420), whole France is delivered to king d' Angleterre Henri V. Thanks to the support of Jeanne d' Arc, Charles VII ends up being made crown king de France in Rheims in 1429. Philippe the Good remained at the sides of the English and the “virgin delivers to them”. But the capacity of kings de France is restored. In 1453, the war is finally finished.

It is the great time of the knighthood. Ditches are dug with ditches and drawbridge. The square towers are replaced by crowned round towers of machicolation and crenels. They are arranged in prison and openings of loopholes. The old undergrounds are given in state. Bèze is then considered invulnerable. A garrison resides at it permanently and the guet is made day and night. Of this fortress, there remain only two of the grosses towers of angle of the ramparts, it “turn of Oysel” and it “lime turn”.

In 1437, the flayers appear in Burgundy and stop in Bèze. The strengthened borough is invaded but one is unaware of if they penetrated in the abbey. In 1445, the flayers return. The borough is tiny room to 47 fires.

Decline of the abbey

The abbots are not any more elected by their monks but are named by the king. In 1535, king François 1st cross-piece Burgundy and passes to Bèze.

About 1547, Protestantism makes followers. Chazeuil, Fountain-Frenchwoman, Is on Bast, Mirebeau and Gemini count many partisans of the reformed religion.

In 1560, the treasure of the abbey is reduced because the monks are obliged to finance the wars which the king Charles IX for the defense of the Catholic religion carries out.

In spite of the plague, the food shortage and the epidemics which prevail in XVIè century, Bèze is a famous industrial site. There are forging mills, tileries, potteries, a mill with barks for the tanning, of the tanneries. Craftsmen work the stone, wood. There are also masons and one marshal-shoeing. One cultivates much hemp and two mills with flour function. The fairs of Bèze take place four times per annum and the peasants and the craftsmen come to sell their production at the market which once takes place per week under the markets. But in 1586, the duke of Mayenne seizes Dijon and several other towns of Burgundy. Mercenaries pass and pass by again in Bèze. The forging mills fall in ruin.

In 1589, Henri IV is recognized king, but Bèze is found in the center of the civil war which opposes the count de Tavannes who are favorable to the king and the Viscount of Tavannes which is for the League. Bèze undergoes the attacks of the members of a league. The area is devastated because the troops are badly paid and plunderings compensate them. The abbey is devastated and counts nothing any more but 6 monks and 2 beginners. In 1595, the king Henri IV is victorious with Fountain-Frenchwoman. But the plague and the famine continue to prevail. The village of Viévigne is tiny room to 8 families.

In 1603, a paper mill settles in Bèze. Some repairs are undertaken. In spite of the treaties of neutrality, the war is again with the doors of Bèze. In 1636, the count of Gallas devastates the valley of Vingeanne, passes to Noiron then to Mirebeau. Viévigne is devastated, Bèze is burnt. The royal army arrives and causes in its turn of new degradations. The soldiers contaminate the inhabitants of the plague. In 1644, all is only ruin. On 95 destroyed houses, 37 only belong to alive men. The furnaces are destroyed. The dependences of the abbey uninhabited and are ruined.

In 1662,12 monks of Saint-Maur come to settle in Bèze to restore the discipline and the regularity there. The fairs begin again in 1665. The turns do not have anything any more defensive: that of the North-East becomes pigeon and takes the name of turn of Oysel and that of the North-West of turn to the choues (owls). The old borough is not any more that one poor wretch village of 120 inhabitants of which the half are the poor maneuvres, widows, beggars and the remainder of the plowmen, vine growers and craftsmen.

In 1696, the church Saint Remi is closed because its maintenance is not made. In 1709, the winter is terrible, it is the famine and the epidemics develop. 1712, the markets of Bèze disappear. 1714, birth of François Clement. He is the son of the sior Claude Blaise Clément, bailly of the Grounds and Seigneureries depend on the abbey of Bèze and young lady Didière Moniot. The François young person passes his childhood in the paternal house to the foot of Careful the Saint vault. He is sent to Dijon to make there his studies among Jesuits of the famous college of Godrans.

1724, the abbey is without abbot and becomes a simple convent.

The Revolution

1789: From 12/23/88 to 1/14/89 Bèze does not run any more, water in the hole is cold. These are difficult times and the revolt thunders. At the time of the night of August 4th, 1789, feudality is abolished. August 26th, the assembly abolishes the privileges and writes the Declaration of the Human rights and the Citizen.

The legend says that one day “those of Vingeanne” arrived at the doors of the abbey armed with sticks, forks and various instruments while shouting and while vociferating against the monks. The latter had just time to flee in an underground to escape the massacre. This true revolutionary riot is the only one which seems to have taken place against the monks barons de Bèze. There were neither killed people, nor burnt perhaps buildings and this simple episode of “great fear” formed part of the many false reports sown in the campaigns to throw terror there.

The law of November 2nd, 1789 places at the disposal of the State all the goods of the clergy. She states more not to recognize the religious wishes and returns freedom to all the cloisters.

The Constituent Assembly ensures at the same time “wages” the priests and the Guelaud abbot, priest of Bèze, are one of the first to applaud these decrees and to confiscate all the goods of the monks against whom he had always fought since his arrival with Bèze, by supporting the inhabitants against their lord.

In February 1790, the Guelaud abbot is elected mayor. An inventory of the goods of the abbey is made in May 1790. There remain nothing any more but 4.175 books in the library.

From January 1791, the goods of the abbey are put on sale: grounds, tilery, a mill, houses in Bèze, the vault Saint-Careful, the communal oven, the vault of Notre Dame of Groisses are sold for 209.410 books. The commune, according to the law, keeps the 1/16e sum. All the invaluable objects, sacred vessels and reliquaries must be versed with the Treasury.

The king is stopped in Varennes on June 21st, 1791. In 1792, the Parliament declares the war in Austria and on August 10th a popular insurrection puts an end to monarchy. The king is stopped, judged. September 20th, 1792, the victory of Valmy saves the Revolution. A new assembly, Convention proclaims the Republic on September 22nd, 1792. Then the republican era year I. the civil statue begins is created and the parochial registers are not legal any more.

In 1793, Louis XVI is guillotine and Robespierre is with the capacity. It is Terror, the creation of the committees of public hello, the revolutionary government, the law of the suspects, the worship to be it supreme and of the goddess reason. France is covered with scaffolds.

The first blows of peaks are given to the monastic buildings. The tradition reports that to have without sorrow and with less expenses lead recovering the roof of the church (to sell it with the armies), the church was filled with faggots and entirely burned.

1795, the church of the monastery is shaven. All the center of the large conventual, long house 113 meters, falls in its turn. There the rooms of reception were, the gallery cloister, horseshoe the staircase, the galleries leading of the dormitory to the church.

The building being used to the monks as press, the fermenting room, is repurchased 12.000 books by the commune to install the town hall and the school there.

The era of the abbey stops, but the history of Bèze continues…

Places and monuments

Caves of Bèze

These caves visit May at September the every day, like in April and in October every weekend. Indeed, the caves are filled with water up to the ceiling during the remainder of the year. For this period of visit, these caves are visited with foot and in the boat. Known, in its initial part, since the Middle Ages, the Cave of Crétane was used as refuge to the monks and to the villagers in the event of invasion of the borough.

Lake which flows with the free air by a siphon of the " type; vauclusien " whose flow can reach 20 m3/second. Arranged in 1970, then restored in 1990, the cave and the lake are sumptuously enlightened.

The existence of the first cave goes back to mists of time. The inhabitants used this cavity to hide during the invasions or many plunderings and destruction lived in the village. They would have even used this cavity to deposit there what they of more invaluable then had stopped the entry.

The second cave was discovered on September 16th, 1950 by the members of the spéléo-club of Dijon. This cavity occupied by an underground river is opened to the public of spring to the autumn. Its visit is carried out in the boat and is commented on.

The resurgence of Bèze

It is by chance, 1954, that speleologists discovered other bowels, and finally the underground lake.

March 5th, 2006, of strong precipitations of snow fell down in dépatement (40 to 50 cm of snow during the weekend), which caused to make assemble the level of the river later 5 days.

The course of Bèze is of 31 kilometers. It is thrown in the Saone close to Vonges. At the beginning of the century, the source was spouting out. It formed two important separate bubbles, more or less high according to the flow (being able to reach 2 meters). Beside these two water exits a third small bubble was. In consequence of the degradations carried out by the German troops, from discovered cave and underground river, its exploration, without forgetting the natural erosion produced by the drainage duct, these bubbles disappeared.

The tower of the Francs

This old tower dating from IXè century belonged to the fortifications surrounding the village lasting the Middle Ages. It is almost completely destroyed. It is called tower of the Francs because it was occupied and defended by franc-tireurs. It was used as turn of alarm and guet for the villagers.

The cure

This square building with the Burgundian roof was the residence of the Kir canon who, of 1910 to 1924, was cleaned of Bèze.

The monastic school

The abbey of Bèze was one of the first to have a monastic school as of 655. This one was in the enclosure of the abbey in order to educate the young monks. Later, it accepted children of the lords and the noble ones wishing to inform itself.

To face its growing success, this external school was founded in 1280. In 1380, it accommodated 40 boys and 20 girls. Its frontage was several times altered. One can notice tripods (clover) with the top of the windows, carved heads and arcades of Gothic style. In the 1872 “hotel of the old monastery” settled there, then a grocer and the station of the bus connecting Dijon to Gray.

The frontage failed to leave for the United States in 1913. Fortunately, this building was saved demolition and it obtained its classification by the Art schools in 1914.

The communal oven

One still sees the vault of the market of the furnace which is walled now. On the first floor, one notices two windows joined with tréflées arcades. It was the home of the monk in charge of his operation. In the home, one still sees a part with alcove, with the mouldings in stucco of time Louis XV, a chimney of the same time, carved very well and polished with plate of hearth with armorial bearings going back to 1738.

The inhabitants of the village were obliged to make there cook their bread. This furnace ceased functioning on October 15th, 1780 in exchange of a “yearly rental based on the situation of each one. ”

The attic with grains

It is the oldest house of Bèze. The first stage was used as attic with grains for the monastery. Opposite, one sees a very old half-timbered house too it.

The vault Saint-Careful

With the junction of the street Dom Clement and lane Careful Saint, one sees a roof at a peak. This one sheltered the chorus of the vault dedicated to Saint-Careful. This vault, built between XIè and XIIè century, sheltered the relics of Saint-Careful. These relics would have made more than 20 miracles and they were very venerated. The vault was sold with the Revolution like good national and transformed into housing.

The walk of the source

The installation of the walk of the source (classified historic building) goes back to the XVIIIè century. The trees have between 250 and 300 years.

The tower of Oysel

It is the second round of the fortifications of the abbey. It was used as dovecote at the XVIIIè century. The walls are 1,75 meters thickness. Joined with this tower, there is the “laundrette of the sisters”. The Claude Monet elementary school is installed in the large building which starts from this tower. This part was the old fermenting room of the monks.

The house Dom Clement

The Lime tower

It is about year 900 that the monastery was surrounded by fortifications. This tower is one of the vestiges. It is called thus since the XVIIè century. That would come either from the situation of a lime hole close to its base, or of the presence of owls in the roofs. It has three stages and its walls are approximately 2 meters thickness.

The Saint-Remi church

The first parochial vault would go back to VIIè century. The first church was built into 960 by the villagers and was placed under the term of Saint-Remi (a table inside the church illustrates this event).

Saint Remi was the bishop who baptized Clovis and 3000 of his soldiers in Rheims in 498. This church was rebuilt many times because it was, like the village and the abbey, destroyed and set fire to 7 times in its history.

In 1768, its state was such as it required an almost total rebuilding.

Outside, one can see a statue hones some on a pedestal which represents Christ with the bond (or God of pity). It is called thus because it has the united hands. Its amputations of the head and the left leg are undoubtedly the work of vandals. At east coast set up a cross which belonged to the old cemetery.

Personalities related to the commune

Dom Clement

Celebrate monk writer who was the author of 12 volumes on the literary history of France and art to check the dates. He was born in Bèze on April 7th, 1714.

The canon Kir

Felix Adrien Kir, (known as the canon Kir), affected in Bèze in 1910. In 1914, it leaves in war to join a medical unit with the armies. It leaves Bèze in 1924 because it is named with Nolay (Coast-in Or). His/her mother rests with the cemetery of the commune.

Careful saint

Holy Careful: Archdeacon and Martyr of Narbonne. One of the significant events of the history of the abbey of Bèze and perhaps the main cause of its celebrity, is the possession of the relics of Saint-Careful. Its various miracles charged to its relics were reported by the Thibault monk.

See too

Internal bonds

Common of Coast-in Careful Or
Holy

External bonds

Official site of Bèze
Bèze on the site of the national geographical Institute
Bèze on the site of INSEE
Bèze on the site of Quid
Localization of Bèze on a chart of France and communes bordering
Plane on Bèze on Mapquest

Notes, sources and references

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