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Origin and history

Sainte-Marie Abbey of Sturzelbronn, founded in 1135 by Simon Ier, Duke of Lorraine and friend of Saint Bernard, is a Cistercian monastery located in the Sturzelthal Valley, in the heart of the northern Vosges. She is the daughter of the Abbey of La Ferté and was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, reflecting Saint Bernard's influence on medieval spirituality. The first monks, led by Abbé Ortlibius, came from Maizières in Burgundy. Simon I, his wife Adelaide, and several nobles of the region were buried there, reinforcing its historical importance.

In 1525, during the Peasant War, the abbey was looted and its archives burned by insurgents, the "mowed", who opposed tithes and ecclesiastical taxes. The revolt, inspired by Luther's ideas, was repressed in blood by the Duke of Lorraine. In 1570 the Protestant Count Philippe V of Hanau-Lichtenberg tried to seize the abbey to impose the Reformation, but the Duke Charles III of Lorraine intervened to save it, occupying the Land of Bitche in 1572.

During the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), the abbey was destroyed in 1633 by Swedish troops. The monks returned in 1687 and rebuilt the buildings under the abbatiates of Antoine Africain Fournier (died 1711) and Jean-François de Mahuet (1711-1740). However, the French Revolution sounded its bell: in 1790, the last nine monks were dispersed, the property confiscated and sold as national property. The abbey church was destroyed in 1807, leaving only a few remains, including the portal classified in 1987.

Today, only the historic portal remains of the abbey, two transformed buildings (mary, school, presbytery), and the 12th century tympanum of the main gate. These remains recall its glorious past, marked by repeated destructions and a history linked to the Dukes of Lorraine, religious conflicts and revolutionary upheavals. The abbey, though never very prosperous, played a major spiritual and political role in the region.

The arms of the abbey, silver to a Virgin of sand gone gold and a lion also of sand with a stick of mouths in strips brushing all, symbolize her Cistercian and Lorrain heritage. Sturzelbronn was also a burial place for several members of the local nobility, including Simon I, its founder, initially buried in Saint-Dié before being transferred to the abbey.

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