St-Maurice Abbey

The abbey was founded in 515 on the burial place of Maurice and the Theban legion, and it has functioned without interruption since - which makes it the oldest continuously inhabited monastery in the West. It sits under a cliff in the narrows of the Rhone valley, a defile that made the site strategically important long before the abbey. The treasury is the reason to visit: a collection of reliquaries, ewers and vessels in gold, silver and gems given by rulers from the Merovingian period onward, including pieces of Roman and early medieval workmanship that survived because the house was never dissolved. Excavations under the church show successive buildings back to the fourth century. Rockfall from the cliff has damaged the site more than once.

What you actually see

• Fifteen centuries without a break - the oldest continuously occupied Western monastery.
• A treasury of royal gifts - goldwork from the Merovingian period onward.
• Excavated layers under the church - successive buildings back to the 300s.
• The Rhone narrows - the defile that made the site strategic.

When to go

All year. Two hours.

Honest expectations

The treasury is seen only on guided tours at fixed times, mostly in French, and they book out. The church itself is plainer than the collection suggests. The town is small. Photography in the treasury is restricted.

Nearby

Martigny and its Roman remains are up the valley; Lake Geneva is north.