Lièpvre (; ; ) is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. A monastery was built here in the eighth century by Saint Fulrad, who filled it with relics of Saint Cucuphas and Saint Alexander.
Geography The municipality is nestled in the Liepvrette river valleyThe abbot Antoine Rice, resident priest to Attigny-la-Tour, called Lièpvrette "L'Ebre" when charged by duke Léopold to list all the parishes of the Duchy of Lorraine in 1702. Carolingian documents named it Laimaha or Laima, and more recently called it Latin Lebera or Lebraha; and Ribeaupierre's subjects called this place "Landbach". The river's original name is probably of Celtic origin and may come from the word Labar, from which comes the Latin name for the area Valle Leporus by 1200. Documents in German language also use the term Lebertal, literally meaning 'Liepvrette valley'. Der frühere Bergbau bei Markirch im Lebertal, bergbaumuseum.deHerr, segne unser Lebertal, bergbaumuseum.de as the river descends from the main chain of the Vosges into the Col des Bagenelles, a mountain pass in the Vosges. The Liepvrette runs northeast through Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines before reaching Lièpvre. Below Lièpvre, the river runs between the ruins of Frankenbourg castle in the north and the castle of Haut-Koenigsbourg in the south then across the municipality of Scherwiller. The Liepvrette then joins the river Giessen (Scheer in former times), which flows from the Val de Villé, before emptying into the river Ill near Sélestat.
The municipality of Lièpvre is bordered by several summits in the Vosges: Brézouard (1229 m), Taennchel (992 m), and High-Koenigsbourg (775 m) to the south; Altenberg (880 m), Chalmont (697 m), Rocher du Coucou (819 m) and Frankenbourg (703 m) to the north. The Altenberg chain separates the Valley of Lièpvre from the Val de Villé. A road built in 1905 allowed access to Rombach-le-Franc, from Lièpvre. This road leads to the hamlet of Hingrie situated from Lièpvre and onto the Col de Fouchy. The village of Liepvre owes its name to the Liepvrette River and its origin to the priory of Lièpvre. Lièpvre is in the center of the valley and sits 275 meters above sea level.
Municipal Boundaries
In 1445 the hamlet of Musloch, between Lièpvre and Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines, was the refuge for farmers of the Valley of Lièpvre who surprised and defeated the Armagnacs near the Rocher des Violons after the Armagnacs invaded Lorraine.Henri Bardy: Un souvenir des écorcheurs, Saint-Dié, 1898 Musloch, named after a fifteenth-century mine, was called Museloch in 1517 and Mauslauch in 1782. A mine called St. Anne was opened there in 1545, but was abandoned in 1750 because the cost of exploitation was too high. Musloch was an established hamlet of about thirteen families by the time the mine closed.
History
Hermitage
A monk named Bobolinus settled near Lièpvre where he built a hermitage named Bobolinocella by 774. This hermitage named for Bobolinocella is mentioned in a document from Charlemagne in 774.
A convent was also established in Echéry by a monk named Gorze Blidulphe during the tenth century. The monks were able to develop the priory due to the silver mines they discovered, which became celebrated in the region and in Lorraine.
Foundation of Lièpvre
Lièpvre (Leberau in German, Lebera or Lebraha in Latin) is a large village situated on the Lièpvrette.This parchment is in the National Archives, Paris, France, under the côte K6, n°3 The village was founded by Fulrad, a future abbot of Saint-Denis, whose parents had extensive possessions in Alsace. People from opposite sides of the Rhine met with each other in the valley of Lièpvre. Fulrad was a Carolingian supporter and probably built a convent in this location as a way to access the other side of the border. Fulrad was also very close to benefactors of Wissembourg's abbey, which included Fulrad's brother, Boniface. Fulrad had two brothers, Gausbert and Boniface, and a sister named Waldrade.J.Fleckenstein, Fulrad von Saint-Denis und der fränkische Ausgriff in den süddeutschen Raum: G.Tellebach, Studien und Vorarbeiten zur Geschichte of fränkischen und frühdeutschen Adels, Fribourg-en-Brisgau, 1957, pp. 9–39 In 770 Fulrad began construction of a priory in Fulradocella, Lièpvre's primitive name. The priory was later named Leberaha.
The monks began to cultivate lands in the valley after the founding of the priory. In 774, Charlemagne approved Lièpvre's founding in a diploma sent from Duren and assures him at the same time of several other properties situated in the royal domain of Kintzheim's with good lands for farming and hunting.
The first road into the valley was constructed in 750 after Fulrad received a license to construct it from Pepin the Short. This road was constructed by serfs from the Saint-Dié (Saint Déodat's) region of the Valley of Galilée. This road passed through Lièpvre into the plain of Alsace. The road no longer exists today, and was replaced in 1761 by another road that passed through to Col de Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines.
Convent of Lièpvre
In 770 Fulrad began the construction of a priory named Fulraand docella (which later became Lièpvre). The construction of the priory took eight years, during which Lièpvre's village became developed. During the first year of his reign, on January 13, 769, Charlemagne donated Saint-Dié's convent to Fulrad. Roughly thirty kilometers of Lièpvre's territory was taken by the royal treasury of King Childéric II from the mayor Wulfoald. Wulfoald was accused of high treason and plotting against Pepin the Short. Wulfoald was condemned to death, but Fulrad's intervention spared his life. In return, Wulfoald gave King Childéric II his possessions, which included the Saint Mihiel abbey in the diocese of Verdun.Stoclet A. - Autour de Fulrad de Saint-Denis, p. 67-68
On September 14, 774, Charlemagne granted properties in the royal domain of Kintzheim to Fulrad. In 781 Charlemagne also granted a vast area of forests from Kintzheim to the abbey of Saint Denis, as well as the tithes of Lièpvre's nearby lands. He then named the convent for Saint Alexander and Saint Cucuphas."Cella, quam onfra vasta Vosgo aedificavi, ubi sanctis cocovatus requiescit, super fluvium laima, quae dicitur Fulradi cella" say Fulrad in his will of 777 which is in National Archives inder the côte: K7, n°1 Saint Alexander's relics were first transported to Paris, then transferred to Lièpvre. In the year 835, the relics of Saint Alexander and Saint Cucufat were transferred to the abbey of Saint-Denis under Hilduin's abbacy. Cucuphas's relics were brought back from Spain between 777 and 778, when Sulaiman Ibn-Al Arabi governed the region of Barcelona. Sulaiman previously submitted to Pippin the Short between 756 and 753 to send Cucuphas's bones away from Spain to avoid the Moslems. The bones were given to Fulrad, who sent them to Lièpvre.Dubruel J. - Fulrad abbé de Saint-Denis, Revue d'Alsace, 1902, p. 138 The church was dedicated to Saint Cucuphas and continued until the fifteenth century.
In 750 Fulrad became abbot of Saint Denis and began alteration works on the abbey Merovingian. These works began after Pepin the Short's death in 771. On February 24 775, Fulrad dedicated the church reconstruction of Saint Denis to Charlemagne.Karlsruhre's library in Germany keeps a manuscript which the monks of Saint-Denis had sent towards 830 to their colleagues of Reichenau on Lake Constance. The manuscript contains the description of the basilica of Saint-Denis, consisted in 799, the 32nd year of the administration of the king Charles (Badische Landesbibliothek, Karlsruhre).
Fulrad was based at other convents during the reconstruction, the most notable of which were Salonne near Castle Salt marshes (Moselle) and Saint Hippolyte near Lièpvre. He was also integral to the creation of Esslingen-am-Neckar's convent near Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg.
On February 26 757, Pope Stephen II gave Fulrad permission to build convents on his own lands.Abbé Grandidier: Histoire de l'église et des évêques-princes de Strasbourg depuis la fondation de l'évêché jusqu'à nos jours, Strasbourg, 1776, François Levrault, p. 437 Lièpvre's village was already prosperous by time of Fulrad's death. According to the former necrology of the Abbey of Saint Denis, the body of the abbot Fulrad was first interred at Saint Denis, then transferred to Lièpvre's priory. The donation of Fulrad's estate to the abbey was confirmed much later by Lothair I in a diploma sent by Verdun on August 4 854, which clarifies that the Abbey of Saint Denis owns all of Fulrad's former possessions.
Royal basilica of Saint Denis
Fulrad's will, drafted in 777,Archives Nationales, Paris, France, cote: K7 n°1 A - AEII 40 devised all of his possessions to the Abbey of Saint-Denis,Testament von Fulrad von Saint-Denis, Neues Archiv, t. XXXII, 1906, p.207 and Fleckenstein, p.9-30 where he was the abbot from 750 to 784. This will was intended as a precaution to ensure that these possessions would not be scattered by rivalries after Fulrad's death. This donation was endorsed in 768 by Pippin the Short.La donation de Charlemagne au prieuré de Lièpvre en 774, p.6 These possessions include a villa connecting Saint Alexander to Lièpvre, which Fulrad received from his sister Waldrade.
This will also mention possessions granted to Fulrad from Charlemagne in 774,Aliqua loca silvestra ... in pago Alsaciense, ex marca fisco nostre Quuningesheim including areas in Alsace, Garmaringa (Guémar), Odeldinga (near Orschwiller), and Ridmarca.Burner's village, today disappeared, situated near Sélestat Fulrad's will also mentioned the possessions received from Chrodradus on July 17, 767. Widensolen's church, in the district of Colmar, does not appear in Fulrad's will drafted in 777, but does appear in a copy which he executed a little later.Les destinées du prieuré de Lièpvre jusqu'à l'an mil, p. 122
Fulrad's death While Fulrad and Charlemagne were alive, Lièpvre was financially secure. In 843 Emperor Lothario Ier gave Quuningishaim (Kintzheim) to the count of NordgauIt is that one reads to the back of Lothaire's diploma in 854 " confirmatio Hlotharii imperatoris of sylvâ pertinente ad Folradi villare, quam absytaxit Erkengarus comes de audo Wilvillare" though this property had been given to Fulrad by Charlemagne in 774. The count also hoped also to take the forest, on which Lièpvre's priory depended.Auguste Kroeber: Diplôme de Lothaire, roi de Lorraine pour le prieuré de Lièpvre, Revue d'Alsace, 1867, pp. 527–528
Abbot Lewis, who obtained the abbey of Saint Denis in 841, attempted to remove the possessions of the priories of Lièpvre and Saint Hippolyte to grant them in fief after Fulrad's death. The monks of Saint Denis opposed this seizure and brought the issue before the assembly of bishops, whom reunited at the request of the king of France near Compiègne in 853. The monks produced Fulrad's original will and the bull of Pope Stephen II, which granted all of the property in question to the abbey of Saint-Denis. The council of Verberie, consisting of four archbishops and seventeen bishops, decided in favor of the monks and pronounced that Lièpvre's priers could never be alienated.The names of the bishops are: Wenilon of Sens, Paul of Rouen, Almaric of Tours, Hincmar of Reims, Teutbold of Langres, Ansegaud of Avranches, Pardule of Laon, Hrothalds of Soissons, Inmons of Noyons, Ieminfrid of Beauvais, Erpoin of Senlis, Hilmerad of Amiens, Agius of Orléans, erloin of Constance, Balfrid of Bayeux, Gunther of Évreux, Gerard of Lisieux, Balfrid of Bayeux, Gunther of Évreux, Gerard of Lisieux, Hildebrand of Seez, Jean of Aurun, Godelsad of Chalon-sur-Saône and Braiding of Mâcon