The Abbey of Lutry

16 April 2024

The monks of the Benedictine abbey of Savigny-en-Lyonnais (founded in 819 and falling under the archdiocese of Lyon in France) built the Romanesque abbey church of St. Martin in Lutry (canton Vaud) in 1025.

The St. Martin monastery developed into one of the most important abbeys in Vaud. The town of Lutry owes its existence and importance to this abbey.

The church was destroyed by fire in 1344. It was rebuilt in the Gothic style.
Protestant Bern conquered Vaud and Lutry in 1536, and the church became Protestant and was renamed Le Temple.

The western facade was rebuilt in the Renaissance style around 1570. In the ceiling, the Renaissance frescoes by Humbert Mareschet (1520-1593) were made in 1577, half a century after the Reformation. They are Catholic motifs.

This artist came from Catholic Lyon, and the frivolous Renaissance style was probably a protest against the Protestant occupiers of Bern.

Impressions of Lutry