The abbey of Saint-Chef, by its influence during twelve centuries deeply marked the local landscape. The story begins in the hamlet of Arcisse at the beginning of the sixth century, where the young Theudère, a native of the place, decided to leave everything to join the Abbey of Lérins.

Ordained in Arles, he returned to his “country” to establish four monasteries, including that of Val Rupéen, on the probable location of the current church. Destroyed by barbarian raids, it was restored in 890 by Benedictine monks from Champagne and subsequently experienced remarkable growth.

So much so that in the eleventh century the church was enlarged and especially decorated at the very beginning of the twelfth century with Romanesque frescoes, illustrating the end of the Apocalypse of Saint John when he evokes the Heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the end of all time. The abbey then extended its patronage to a dozen priories and a hundred surrounding parishes.

Having become a noble chapter in 1536 and only housing twenty-eight canons, they decided to leave the premises in 1774 to unite with the abbey of Saint-André-le-Bas in Vienna.

Abandoned, then damaged during the French Revolution, the church was saved from the ravages of time and men thanks to Prosper Mérimée who listed it in the first inventory of Historic Monuments in 1840. From then on, the church was cleaned up by evacuating the four meters of earth which had slipped on its north and east flanks, and the protected Romanesque frescoes.

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