Moissac - Abbaye Saint-Pierre

We had decided to visit our irish friends in Moissac on our way north. I had met them, when I walked the Via Podensis some years ago.

Of course we did return to the Abbaye Saint-Pierre. A legend tells, that the monastery was founded by Frankish King Clovis in 506, but historians proved that it was indeed founded founded within the 7th century by the Bishop of Cahors.

It was not easy for the convent. The monastery got attacked by moorish troops twice within the 8th century. A hundred years later the Normans rowed up the Garonne and raided the place. After Hungarian troops had looted and destroyed it finally in the 10th century the monastery got rebuilt.

When the pilgrimage to Santiago got popular, the Abbey got affiliated to Cluny and was a major halt on the Via Podensis. This was the golden age for the abbey and the abbots invested in architecture and art. The Romanesque church, consecrated already in 1063, got completely destroyed during the Albigensian Crusade.

The portal, created 1110/1130, survived the times. It is a great piece of Romanesque art - and I took some more photos of this "World Heritage Site".