ST. MARTIN'S COLLEGE

The collegiate church of Isle-Jourdain has had a turbulent history through the centuries. The first building on the site was a priory attested in 1177. Erected as a collegiate church in 1318 by Pope John XXII, the church housed a chapter of 12 canons under the authority of a dean. The church was destroyed in 1580 by the Protestants who came with Henri IV to occupy the city. A new church was built, of which only the tower remains today. It was used as a watchtower because of its height. This did not prevent Georges du Bourg, the governor of Isle-Jourdain, from sending his men to raze the new church in 1585. After the promulgation of the Edict of Nantes in 1598, the chapter built a provisional collegiate church which was forbidden to worship in 1779 because it was considered too dangerous. A fourth version was built on the same site between 1779 and 1785 in a neo-classical style and on the plans of the Toulouse architect Arnaud Raymond. The financing was done by launching a kitty in which the archbishop of Toulouse and the king Louis XIV himself participated. The French Revolution put a stop to the development of the collegiate church. It was not until 1820 that it received its interior ornaments and furniture. The collegiate church has the rare characteristic of not having a bell tower. It is in the form of a Greco-Latin cross with a single nave. The choir and the nave have more or less the same dimensions, giving the building a pleasant harmony.