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Origin and history

The Theuley Abbey, located in the hamlet of Theuley-les-Vars in the commune of Vars (Haute-Saône), is a 12th century Cistercian foundation. According to legend, its creation would be the result of a dream where Pierre de Mauregard, the chestnut of Montsaugeon, ordered a canon of Langres to yield the deserted place of Vars to the white monks. In 1130, the brothers Eudes and Othon de Montsaugeon offered the site, then named Tulleium, to Gaucher, Abbé de Morimond, friend of Saint Bernard. Twelve monks established the abbey, renamed Theolocus (place dedicated to God). In 1168, Girard de Fouvent left his estate in Bourberain.

The abbey has territorial conflicts with the Templars, especially in Percey-le-Grand and Othery-lès-Gray, where their domains are adjoining. The bishop of Langres intervened to arbitrate these disputes. The church, completed in 1210, presents an ambitious plan: three naves of seven spans, a transept surmounted by a bell tower, and a choir flanked by two chapels dedicated to Saint George and the Magi Kings. It houses numerous burials of the family of Vergy, noble Burgundys, whose tombs are documented in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by records and drawings kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

The Abbey, daughter of Morimond, has eight dependent barns, including those of Montverrat (abandoned before 1445), Montcierge (with chapel Saint Anne and vineyards), and Bley (place of production of cast iron in 1790). In the 18th century, after destruction in the 16th and 17th centuries, a major reconstruction was undertaken: the regular buildings and the cloister were built from 1706 by architect Nicolas Cailler, followed by the Abbatial Quarter (1722–26) and the Church (1753–1758). Sold as a national property in 1791, the abbey now retains its entrance pavilions, its fence wall, two southern buildings, and a mill, protected since 2000.

Among the remarkable remains is a vaulted room on columns with Romanesque capitals, rare example of early Cistercian architecture in Haute-Saône. Theuley also founded the Abbey of Haute-Seille in Lorraine in the 12th century. Archaeological excavations (1996–1997) on the barns of Montverrat and Montcierge revealed chapels, cellars, and water collection systems, illustrating the economic organization of the Cistercians.

Historical sources mention abbots and donors such as Ponce de Montot (Bley's grange), as well as noble families buried in the church, such as the Vergy, Senechaux de Bourgogne. Archives include cartulars, 17th-century epigraphic records, and academic memories (e.g. Françoise Bailly, 1971). The abbey, now privately owned, bears witness to the Cistercian influence in Franche-Comté and its role in structuring the medieval territory.

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