Montesquieu-Volvestre - Saint Victor

Raymond VII, the Count of Toulouse, who signed the Treaty of Paris (1229), that ended the Albigensian Crusade and the political autonomy of Occitan, founded the town in a loop of the River Arize in 1238 as a bastide.

Saint Victor, the fortified parish church, was erected in the typical gothique méridional style from red bricks just after the town was founded. In front of the golden Madonna (left) stairs lead down to a small crypt.