Montfaucon, one of the oldest villages of the Franches-Montagnes

8 December 2021

Montfaucon is one of the oldest villages on the Franches-Montagnes plateau (canton of Jura). The church of Montem falconis (Mont du Faucon) is mentioned in a bull by Pope Innocent II in 1139. The village already existed before the 12th century, however.

The church of Montfaucon was dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. In 1384, Imier of Ramstein, prince-bishop of Basel, issued a Franchise Charter exempting the inhabitants from all taxes and giving each citizen one hectare of land. This measure encouraged the settlement of new settlers.

The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) hit the region hard. It was plundered and destroyed by French troops. It was repeated by the French king Louis XIV’s (1643-1715) in his was against the Franche-Comté (a Spanish-Habsburg possession) in 1668.

After the French Revolution (1789), the Prince-Bishopric of Basel was one of the first to be conquered by the French armies in 1792. It ended seven and a half centuries of power of the Prince-Bishop of Basel in the Jura. The Prince-Bishop left Porrentruy, his residence since he left Basel in 1527 due to the Reformation.

On 17 December 1792, the “Free and Independent Republic of the Rauracia” was proclaimed. It included the regions of Porrentruy, Saint-Ursanne, Delémont, Laufon and the Franches-Montagnes.

The Rauracian Republic ceased to exist in March 1793. The department of Mont Terrible was created. In 1800, it was incorporated into the new department of Haut-Rhin.

1813-1815 marked the fall of Napoleon and the period in which France regained its borders of 1792. At the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815), the victorious powers decided to allocate the territory of the former bishopric of Basel to the canton of Berne.

The Franche-Montagnes was a district with Saignelégier as its capital. After creating the Canton of Jura in 1979, this situation remained unchanged.

(source: www.montfaucon.ch).