Abbaye de Balerne, Romanesque abbey in Champagnole, France

Abbaye de Balerne lies at the foot of a wooded hillside in the reculée de Balerne, a valley on the second plateau of Loulle and Mont-sur-Monnet. Two surviving 18th-century buildings stand there: a long two-storey structure with a steep pitched roof of reddish-brown tiles, pale grey walls and a row of small high windows, and a second building with a pyramidal roof nearby. The medieval church, consecrated in 1147, was largely demolished after the Revolution.

Benedictine monks from Molesme founded the abbey around 1107 on land given by Guy, viscount of Salins, and his son Roger of Monnet. On 31 May 1136, under abbot Burchard, the community adopted the Cistercian rule as a daughter house of Clairvaux. The abbey church was consecrated in 1147 by Humbert de Scey, archbishop of Besançon. A fire destroyed the church and convent buildings in 1755; they were rebuilt on a smaller scale, and the monastery was dissolved in 1791.

The name Balerne probably derives from a deformation of the Latin eremus, "isolated", fitting the secluded valley chosen by the founding monks. In 1432 the abbey organised theological training according to the rule of Cîteaux, and its abbot later installed one of the region's first printing presses. In 1486 the Cistercian general chapter entrusted Simon, abbot of Balerne, with inspecting the order's abbeys in Savoy and Switzerland.

The site lies in the reculée de Balerne, on the commune of Mont-sur-Monnet, about six kilometres south-east of Champagnole. Only two 18th-century buildings survive, and they are private property, so they can be seen from outside but not entered. The valley floor is crossed by the small Balerne river.

The two surviving buildings date from the 18th century, rebuilt on a smaller scale after the 1755 fire that destroyed the church and convent. The church consecrated in 1147 by Archbishop Humbert de Scey was largely demolished after the abbey was dissolved in 1791 and sold as national property.