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Origin and history

The Abbey of Saint-André-le-Bas, located in Vienna in the Isère, is founded in the sixth century by Duke Ansemond, according to a late copy of his will preserved in the departmental archives. Located at the confluence of the Rhône and the Gère, it became a masculine monastery after the restoration of the Saint-Pierre church and the enrichment of the abbey of Saint-André-le-Haut. The beginnings of the abbey remain poorly documented, but its church becomes the chapel of the palace of the kings of Burgundy at the end of the ninth century. It adopted the Benedictine rule towards the end of the tenth century, attracting donations that made it the second most powerful abbey in Vienna, after Saint Peter.

In the 12th century, the abbey experienced an architectural and political boom. The abbot obtained from the pope the right to carry the mitre in the 13th century, while the surrounding district, called the Great Parish, housed an important Jewish community and hosted the first meetings of the city's consuls. The abbey church, built on a Roman platform, underwent two major campaigns: the first in the 10th century (drop-walls, apse alternating with bricks and stones), the second in 1152 (voûtment, bow-buttons, bell tower). Chapels were added from the 13th century, and the choir stalls date from the 18th century.

The decline began with the Hundred Years' War and competition from new religious orders. The Wars of Religion ended with the weakening of the abbey, whose monks were becoming scarce. It was united with the monasteries of Saint-Chef in 1774 and Saint-Pierre in 1780, putting an end to monastic life before the Revolution. The church becomes parish, and the convent buildings are sold or dismembered. In the 19th century, the menacing facade was rebuilt by the architect Jules Formigé at the beginning of the 20th century, who also restored the Roman cloister (mid-12th century), the only complete example in the Rhône-Alpes, and its walled ceiling of the 15th century.

The site preserves Gallo-Roman remains (monstrous stairway, portico of the forum) and medieval elements like 12th–13th century steles embedded in the walls. The abbey houses a Merklin organ restored in 2017. The adjoining buildings, such as the house of the chamarier (11th century) or the abbey palace (18th century staircase), bear witness to its past importance. Ranked in 1840 for the church and in 1954 for the cloister, the abbey illustrates the religious and architectural history of Vienna, from antiquity to the eighteenth century.

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