Plan your visit
Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez Village is one of France’s prettiest villages — perfect for a slow stroll and a long lunch. Locate it on the map, book a room nearby in a click, or add it to your travel list to build your itinerary.
About Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez Village
One of the most unusual of the Plus Beaux Villages de France, Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez in the Pilat hills near Saint-Étienne is a village built entirely within the walls of a former Carthusian monastery. Founded in the 13th century, the great charterhouse was abandoned at the Revolution, and the villagers moved into its cells, cloisters and courtyards — so that today the whole village lives inside the old monastery, its houses fitted into the monks' quarters around two beautiful courtyards. Visitors can tour the preserved church, a restored monk's cell and the medieval buildings that tell this remarkable story. Green, peaceful and quite unlike any other village, wrapped in the wooded hills of the Parc naturel régional du Pilat, Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez is a fascinating and serene place where monastic heritage and rural life have become one.