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Origin and history

The priory of Viviers was born in 1024, when Conrad, king of the Romans, offered the estate to Udelin. Shortly thereafter, a priory dedicated to Notre-Dame was founded under the impulse of Mettlach Abbey. This priory, which began in the 15th century, was abolished in 1625 after its redemption by the prince of Vaudémont, the local lord. The latter installed regular canons of the Congregation of Notre-Sauveur to reform it, causing the destruction of the old buildings and their replacement by a new Conventual set completed around 1630. The canons occupied the place from that date.

The architecture of the priory, organised around a square courtyard, consisted of four wings, of which the northern one housed the church. In 1736 the community had one prior, five priests and one brother. During the Revolution, the convent became a National Good: the north and west wings disappeared in the early nineteenth century, leaving room for the present parish church. The south wing, used as a presbytery until the 1980s, and the east wing (private property) remain partially. Their structure, made of crepeed bellows with cut stone chains, preserves remarkable elements such as a stone washbasin adorned with anangelots (17th century) and an Italian staircase.

The interiors, less transformed in the south wing, reveal 18th-century chimneys (except a 17th-century origin) and inland traffic galleries. The site, which dominates the site of the old castle, has been included in the additional inventory of Historic Monuments since 1998 for its southern wing, including the historic sink. Today, this wing belongs to the commune, while the east wing remains private. The priory thus illustrates the architectural and religious changes between the Middle Ages and the modern era in Lorraine.

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