The old village of Saint-Priest, to 596 meters, occupies the summit of the knoll where Sanctus Projectus have lived as a hermit before he became bishop of Clermont from 666 to 676.
There, according to the tradition reported by the Abbot of Soleysel a few years later, Oursion have built a church "to atone for his complicity in the murder of the Saint of Auvergne." It would be he who would have given the village its name.
The castle built in the 11th century by the family of Urgel, is the first built in Barony of Drill marquisate by Henri IV. He was struck several times by lightning in the 17th century and the last two gentlemen were convicted, it seems, struck counterfeit money.
Guy II, Count of Drill, was forced in 1773 to divide its states into small estates: The Tower, Saint Romain, Saint Julien formed County Jarez Saint Priest which was the capital. The house Jarez took its name from the Latin or Jaresium Giaresium, which itself drew from his Gier (Giarum).