The ancient abbey of Condat, called Saint-Oyend-de-Joux in 1200 and later Saint-Claude, is the lord of a large and thinly settled block of the high Jura round the Bienne and Tacon valleys.
Imperial privileges, including a golden bull of Frederick Barbarossa (1184), protected it as an abbey of the Empire. Its land is forest, pasture and new clearings rather than towns, but it commands the roads from the county of Burgundy to the Pays de Gex and Geneva.
Who holds it
- Title
- Abbot of Saint-Oyend-de-Joux
- Since
- Not pinned
- Confidence
- low
We could not read a list of abbots in this session (the fetch proxy refused the pages on the abbey), so the abbot on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.
What it holds
- The land of Saint-Oyend in the high Jura round the abbey (the later Terre de Saint-Claude): forests, pastures and clearings of the Bienne and Tacon valleys and the plateaux above them
- The abbey town at Saint-Oyend with its pilgrimage (the cult of Saint Claude, later dominant, is only beginning)
How it was acquired
Royal grants to the abbey from the Merovingian and Carolingian period, confirmed by later emperors, including a golden bull of Barbarossa in 1184 [date from the standard histories; not verified in a source this session].
How things stand that morning
Held by the abbey; the abbot's standing in the German quarrel is not known.
Wealth
Forest, pasture and cattle; pilgrim offerings; tolls on the Jura roads.
Threats
- Advocates and neighbouring lords encroaching on its forests
- The disorder in the county of Burgundy after Count Otto's murder in January 1200
Advocates and rivals
The counts of Burgundy; the lords of Thoire-Villars and of Gex on the southern side; the lords and abbeys of the Swiss Jura on the east, where the borders with the land of Romainmotier and the lordships of the Vaud ran through empty forest (not pinned for 1200).
Places of note
- Abbey of Saint-Oyend: The abbey church and town
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Nothing about the abbey could be read in this session; the record rests on the standard history of the abbey, and the outline follows the later Terre de Saint-Claude. Treat as a placeholder to be checked.
On the map: The outline follows the abbey's later land (Saint-Claude, Septmoncel, Longchaumois, Morez, Les Rousses, Bellecombe, Les Bouchoux) and is not attested as a bounded territory in 1200; the high plateaux were barely settled then, and the boundary with the Vaud at Les Rousses was disputed for centuries.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.