Agen - Musée des Beaux-Arts

The Gallo-Roman city of Aginnum, which existed here, was very populated and had an amphitheater that could accommodate more than 10,000 people. From the end of the 3rd century , the chronicles relate the martyrdoms of Saint Caprais and Saint Foy, who are said to be buried in Aginnum. The first known bishop, named Phébade, is documented a century later.
Over the following centuries, Agen was invaded by the Vandals, the Visigoths, and the Franks before being attacked by the Vikings in the 9th century. Historians have noted three invasions: in 843, 853, and the last in 922. A great loss for Agen was when at the end of the 9th century monks from Conques could steal the relics of St. Foy and transfer them to Conques (where they still are).

In the 13th and 14th centuries, the city was contested between the English and the French. In the early stages of the Hundred Years' War, it came to the English but was conquered and recaptured twice. In 1372, the Duke of Anjou established his headquarters here. Although he lost the city the next year, he was able to retake it by 1374. While thereafter part of the towns and castles of Agenais were temporarily under English rule, Agen remained almost permanently in French hands until the end of the war.

The
Musée des Beaux-Arts is lodged in four magnificent Renaissance mansion houses which open out on to fine inner courtyards.

The "Tresor de Castillones" consists of 10 pieces of medieval goldsmithery. It was discovered in Castillones, a fortified town, before 1907.

This cross is one of the pieces found.