Abbaye-école de Sorèze

Sorèze

Tradition dates the foundation of the Benedictine abbey of Sorèze to the year 754, in the reign of Pepin the Short, at the foot of the Berniquaut mountain. Destroyed by the Normans in the 9th century and rebuilt in the 10th, it saw the village grow up in its shadow, took in, in 1210, the inhabitants driven from the fortress dismantled during the Albigensian Crusade, suffered the routiers in 1377, then the Wars of Religion: in 1573, the Protestants razed monastery and church, sparing only the Saint-Martin bell tower, still standing like an unfinished vessel of stone in the middle of the town. Restored from 1638 by the Benedictines of Saint-Maur, the abbey opened a seminary for young gentlemen in 1682: the abbey-school was born. In 1759, Dom Victor de Fougeras devised there a pedagogy adapted to the tastes and talents of each pupil, so innovative that Louis XVI made Sorèze in 1776 one of his twelve royal military schools. Bought back after the Revolution by the former Benedictine François Ferlus, the school enjoyed a new brilliance under Father Lacordaire, who directed it from 1854 until his death in 1861 and made it an "intellectual laboratory" of international renown. Some 23,000 pupils from all over the world followed one another there until its closure in 1991 – school-leavers traditionally carved their names on the walls of the courtyards. A monument historique, the vast complex and its park have been open to visitors since 1993.

Getting there : In the heart of the village of Sorèze, at the foot of the Montagne Noire; entrance by the rue Lacordaire, village car parks. Site open to visitors (Dom Robert museum and abbey-school museum).

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound