Luxeuil was the Roman Lixomum and contained many fine buildings at the time of its destruction by the Huns under Attila in 451. In 590 St Columban here founded a monastery, afterwards one of the most famous in Franche Comté. In the 8th century it was destroyed by the Saracens; afterwards rebuilt, monastery and town were devastated by the Normans in the 9th century and pillaged on several occasions afterwards.
The abbey schools were celebrated in the middle ages and the abbots had great influence; but their power was curtailed by the emperor Charles V and the abbey was suppressed at the Revolution.
See H Beaumont, Etude hist, sur l'abbaye de Luxeuil, 890-1790 (Lux. 1895); Grandmongin and A Garnier, Hist. de la mile et des thermes de Luxeuil (Paris, 1866), with 16 plates.