A first monastic cell was founded in Baume-les-Messieurs, at the crossroads of three valleys, by the Irish saint Colomban in the 6th century. It was then enlarged from 890 by the abbot Bernon to whom it had been entrusted and became an abbey. The Saint-Pierre abbey of Baume-les-Messieurs reached its peak between the 11th and 12th centuries by being one of the main monasteries of the diocese of Besançon and by taking the title of imperial abbey by decision of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Its decline began in 1147 when it came under the authority of the Abbey of Cluny.