ST. PETER'S ABBEY

Although it does not offer retreats or hospitality, Moissac is well worth a visit. The place owes its international fame to the artistic heritage bequeathed by the former Benedictine abbey of Saint-Pierre. If the legend attributes its foundation to Clovis, it seems more likely that it was the initiative of Saint Didier, bishop of Cahors in the ^7th century. Its first golden age was in the ^11th and ^12th centuries, following its affiliation, in 1047, to the abbey of Cluny. This period saw great abbots, notably Dom Ansquitil who built the cloister, an example almost unique in the world for its preservation in its entirety. Its four galleries unfold with 116 columns on which 76 historiated capitals are displayed, illustrating about fifty scenes from the Bible and the history of the Church. On the corner pillars, effigies of the apostles complete the remarkable iconography of the cloister. We owe the porch-tower and the famous tympanum to Blessed Roger. Raymond de Montpezat and Bertrand de Montaigu directed the abbey and were also the great abbot builders of the ^13th century. The gothic part of the abbey church was built in the ^15th century. The secularization of the abbey in 1626 marked the departure of the Benedictine monks who had remained in Moissac for nearly a thousand years. Under the regime of commendation, they were replaced by Augustinian canons. Under the Revolution, monastic life came to an end. In the ^19th century, the cloister was classified as a historical monument. Today, this heritage is the object of attentive care.