Moissac,
is in the Tarn et Garonne department; It is mostly, world-widely famous
for the artistic heritage handed down by the old Saint-Peter abbey.
To a legend, it was founded by Clovis (the Frankish
king) but to history by Saint Didier, bishop of Cahors in the middle
of the seventh century. The monastery start was difficult because
of Moors' and Norsmens' raids.
The eleventh and twelth centuries witnessed a
first golden age, the consequence of Moissac being affiliated to the Burgundy
abbey of Cluny and its accepting the famous Reformation, under the drive
of Durand de Bredons who was both the Abbot of Moissac
and the bishop of Toulouse. This outstanding era witnessed major abbots
Dom Hunaud de Gavarret, Dom Ansquitil;
who had the doorway and tympanum built.
In the thirteenth century, Raymond de Montpezat
and then Bertrand de Montaigut, abbots and builders ruled the
abbey. Aymeric de Peyrac, writing his Chronicle in the
fifteenth century in the castle of Saint Nicolas de la Grave reveals us
those events. The fifteenth century witnessed a new golden
age with abbots Pierre and Antoine de Caraman
who edificated works, and especially the Gothic part of the abbey-church.
The 1626 secularization of the abbey caused the Benedictine
monks to leave the cloister after nearly 1000 years of Benedictine life.
They were replaced by Augustinian canons, under commendary abbots: well-known
cardinals such as Mazarin and de Brienne.
In 1793, the French Revolution put an end to religious life.
In the middle of the ninteenth century, the passing of
a railway-track the cloister but it was saved, listed as a Historic Monument.
Even if the side buildings have suffered a lot and the abbey changed in
aspect, this inheritance is nowadays the object of intense care as the
tympanum, great among the greatest and the most beautiful cloister in
the world can still be admired.
Besides, a model represents the cloister and other religious buildings
in the eighteenth century.
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