Le Saint-Mont, Mountain summit in Vosges, France

Le Saint-Mont is a 672-meter summit in the Vosges with wooded slopes and rocky outcrops visible along the hiking paths. The mountain has multiple access routes and serves as a natural landmark in the regional landscape.

Gauls venerated the sun god Belen on the summit, and the Romans built the fortress Castrum Habendi there. In 620 the Austrasian noble Romaric, freed from serfdom, founded a monastery of Columbanian nuns with the spiritual help of Amé, comprising the basilicas of Saint-Pierre and Sainte-Marie and a cell for lepers. The community moved down to the valley on 17 May 818, founding Remiremont; the summit later housed canons and Benedictines until the priory was suppressed in 1791.

The name Saint-Mont honours the relics of saints kept in the monastery founded on the summit in 620 by Romaric with the help of Amé. Each year on Whit Monday a festival is held on the mountain, with a religious service and events. The summit chapel, built in 1852 by Charles Galmiche on the site of the old church, was restored in 1953 for the 1300th anniversary of Romaric's death.

Well-marked paths start from several trailheads and make navigation straightforward for visitors of different abilities. Information boards and parking areas at the base help with orientation and planning your visit.

The summit was long called mont Habend, a name the doctor A. Fournier linked to old water-movement terms, since the mountain feeds the Moselle and the Moselotte. From the 13th century a Germanic form, Romberg or Rombech, appears in the monastery's obituary of 1406, and both Romberg and Saint-Mont were used until the end of the Middle Ages.