Saint-Saphorin

Saint-Saphorin occupies a narrow band between Lake Geneva and the vine terraces of Lavaux, at 384 metres. The commune is more than the village: it also takes in the hamlets of Glérolles, Les Faverges, Ogoz and Lignières, and belongs to the district of Lavaux-Oron.

The place has been inhabited since Roman times at least. A milestone here has been dated to the year 47 of our era, and the ruins of a Gallo-Roman villa lie beneath the present church. The name then was Glerula, from the Latin glarea, gravel — which became Glérolles in the Middle Ages. In 563 the Tauredunum landslide destroyed the village by the water.

A new church was built higher up, dedicated to Saint Symphorian; it would later give the village its name. The building seen today was raised between 1517 and 1521 at the instance of Bishop Sébastien de Montfalcon, and its great stained-glass window carries the date 1530. Below, on the site of ancient Glerula, a keep was built in 1150 by the Bishop of Lausanne, turned into a castle from 1300 and rebuilt around 1526: this is the château de Glérolles.

In the Middle Ages the village belonged to the bishop's lands. In the 19th century the commune split and produced four communes — Chexbres, Puidoux, Rivaz and Saint-Saphorin. The reformed church of Saint-Symphorien, its parsonage and the villa ruins it covers are listed as Swiss cultural property of national significance, and since 2017 the village has belonged to the association Les plus beaux villages de Suisse. Its inhabitants, the Saint-Saphoriens, carry two old nicknames: the Goths and the Assassins.

Why this place is remarkable

Few villages stack their ages so plainly: the walls of a Gallo-Roman villa lie under the floor of the reformed church, and the place stands where it does only because the Tauredunum landslide wiped out, in 563, the village by the water. The name followed the move — Glerula, gravel, down below; the saint of the church, up above.

History and origin

The first settlement, Glerula, held the lake shore: a milestone of the year 47 and the foundations of a Gallo-Roman villa attest to it. The Tauredunum landslide, in 563, destroyed it. The village moved up around a church dedicated to Saint Symphorian; the present building dates from 1517-1521, its great window from 1530. Below, the Glerula site received a keep in 1150, became a castle from 1300 and was rebuilt around 1526 under the name Glérolles. The communal division of the 19th century completed the present map: Chexbres, Puidoux, Rivaz and Saint-Saphorin.