A brief history of Morzine
he polar opposite of 1970s tower-block resorts like Tignes and La Plagne , the beautiful, charming ski resort of Morzine began life as far back as 1090. The area was one of only two crossing-points over the river Dranse and as such was of great geographical importance. Around the start of the 12th century, Cistercian monks began arriving in the area of St Jean d’Aulps on pilgrimage from other areas in France , most notably Dijon. The term Cistercian comes from the Latin ‘Cistercium,’ which was the name given to the Dijon village of CĂ®teaux from whence the monks mostly came. By 1181 they had fully established themselves in St Jean d’Aulps and in the surrounding territories, and Morzine became a “monastic grange” from the abbey of the same name. For the monks of the day, the monastic granges were bases from which they could work the land, provide their communities with sustenance and divide up clothing, utensils and building materials amongst the population. The monks prospered f