Grandson - Church of St-Jean-Baptiste

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Chaise-Dieu. The beauty of the church is mainly due to the lightness of its architecture.

As in the church of St-Aimable-de-Riom in the Auvergne, the side aisles have half-barreled or double-barreled roofs. The nave has a round-barreled roof of tuft, supported by beautiful marbled pillars, with capitals full of fanciful decoration. The seat of the priors (who included St Hugo, a former monk of the "Grande Chartreuse") has a representation of his swan and is considered the finest carving of its kind in Switzerland. A special mention should be made of the frescoes of the 15th C. tomb in a niche in the south chapel and the wall tabernacle (1470) by Pierre Chapuiset in the north chapel. The great Romanesque capitals of the main aisle form a unity of the highest artistic work. In spite of their varied inspirations, they form a unified synthesis of spiritual themes concerning the tragedy of human existence and the mystery of Christ. In the Battle of Grandson the Confederates gained their first victory on March 2, 1478 over Duke Karl the Bold of Burgundy, who lost all his artillery and a great deal of treasure which can now be seen in the Historical Museum of Berne.