Fête de la Tête de Moine

Each first weekend of May, the small village of Bellelay in the Bernese Jura hosts a festival celebrating Tête de Moine, a cheese that has been made here for more than 800 years, since monks at the local Norbertine abbey first began producing it both to feed themselves and to pay taxes to the Diocese of Basel. Originally known as Fromage de Bellelay, the cheese was renamed Tête de Moine, 'monk's head', after the French Revolution forced the monks from the abbey.

The festival blends food, wine and games across the weekend, with the abbey's café and restaurant serving traditional Jura dishes like rösti alongside fondue made from a special blend combining Tête de Moine with Vacherin Fribourgeois and Gruyère. Diners plunge bread into shared ceramic pots of melted cheese mixed with wine and spices, while crisp local wines made from Chasselas and Petit Arvine grapes offer a refreshing counterpoint to the richness of the food. Evening entertainment runs from a local comedian on opening night to music and dancing, closing on Saturday with a communal fondue shared by all attendees.

For visitors interested in the genuinely monastic roots of Swiss cheesemaking, few festivals anywhere offer as direct a connection to that history as Bellelay's, held in the same abbey grounds where the tradition first began.