Ancien prieuré de Viviers

English translation

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History

In October 1024, Conrad, King of the Romans, gave to Udelin the domain which he had at Viviers. In the years which followed a priory was founded, under the invocation of Notre-Dame, at the initiative of the abbey of Mettlach. Put in commendam in the 15th century, this priory was suppressed in 1625 after its acquisition by the Prince of Vaudémont, lord of Viviers, who had regular canons of the congregation of Notre-Sauveur sent there to undertake its reform. The old buildings were then destroyed and replaced by a new establishment of which the canons took possession in 1630. The whole consisted of four ranges delimiting a square courtyard, the North range being the church. A prior, five priests and a brother resided in 1736. Under the Revolution, the convent was acquired as National Property by the commune and several private owners. The beginning of the 19th century saw the disappearance of the North and West ranges. It was on the site of this latter that the present parish church was subsequently to be built. The South range, which forms part of the communal domain, served as a presbytery until around 1980. To the South-East of the village, the two preserved ranges of the priory and the adjacent parish church are built on an eminence overlooking the site of the old castle, registered in the supplementary inventory of Historic Monuments. They comprise two storeys on cellars with barrel vaults and covered with a roof with two slopes of mechanical tiles. The construction, in rubble stone rendered, is chained with dressed stone and pierced with regular bays of rectangular windows with or without mullions. The typical window presents a frame with chamfered arises, the reveal extending over the arises of the mullion of square section. The circulation galleries are interior, on the courtyard side, on both storeys. At the West end of the South range, a large staircase in the Italian manner, in stone, serves the storey. In the angle, at the junction of the East and South ranges is disposed the polygonal and curved coping of a well, adjoining the entrance of the South range. On the right, the apron of the first window has been designed to integrate, on the gallery side, an exceptional stone washbasin, adorned with cherub heads. A ceiling of joists covers both the rooms and the gallery. Inside the rooms, almost all of the fireplaces are of 18th century type; only one, on the ground floor, is original, from the 17th century. Noticeably less transformed than the East range (private property), the South range of the old convent has thus retained the essentials of its arrangements.