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All material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-08 - The contents may not be reproduced without permission - Adrian Fletcher can be contacted at afletch at paradoxplace dot com
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CIAO ADRIANO
Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Moissac
October 2007
THE ROUTE TO DATE WITH MAPS OF FRANCE AND OF ITS MEDIEVAL PILGRIMAGE ROADS
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The Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Moissac was founded in the mid 600s. It was extremely well endowed and regally protected, but that did not stop the turbulence of the times washing over it on several violent occasions and grinding it down. By the early years of the first Millennium things were going from bad to worse - in 1030 the church roof collapsed, and in 1042 what was left was ravaged by fire.
Then on cue the cavalry came riding over the hill in the form of the great Burgundian Abbey of Cluny. In 1048 Moissac became affiliated with Cluny, who in turn sent one of their senior managers, Durand de Bredon, down to do a turnaround job as Abbot. They did not muck around, those Cluniacs, and only 15 years later in 1063 a new Abbey church was consecrated.
Today the two glories of the Abbey are its cloisters, which date from 1100 and are run as a state museum, and the portal in the south west of the church (which is still run as a church), whose reliefs and sculptures date from a few decades later. The sculpture of the Prophet Jeremiah, half hidden on the east side of the centre column (trumeau) of the portal, is one of the most important iconic images of Romanesque art.
The cloisters, having survived Simon de Montfort in 1212 and many other nasties since then, nearly got destroyed by the great railway craze of the mid 1800s. In the end a compromise was reached and only the refectory was sacrificed to the march of progress (see right), but it was a damned close thing (as someone once said).
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The Prophet Jeremiah
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The Prophet Jeremiah on the east side of the trumeau (central portal column), accompanied by Saint Paul on the west side |
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Portal sideshow
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More from the cloister later |
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Go to the Page LIst for a full listing of pages and their status
All material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-08 - The contents may not be reproduced without permission - Adrian Fletcher can be contacted at afletch at paradoxplace dot com
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