Abbaye Notre-Dame de Candeil

Labessière-Candeil

Founded in 1152 by monks from the powerful abbey of Grandselve, the community of Candeil had a turbulent start: its first site, at Saint-Raffel, was destroyed by Count Raymond V of Toulouse, and only after this setback did the monks settle for good at Candeil-bas, with the support of the lord of Montaigut. The abbey grew in spiritual prestige: in 1165, its abbot was invited to the famous Council of Lombers, one of the great theological encounters that preceded the Albigensian Crusade. Candeil in turn sent out an offshoot, founding the abbey of Bonnecombe. But the companies of routiers devastated the monastery around 1430, in the midst of the Hundred Years' War; rebuilt at the end of the 15th century, the abbey suffered a further fire before undergoing major works in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Revolution sealed its fate: sold as national property, it served as a stone quarry. A caretaker named Thomas Reilles managed to preserve nearly half the buildings until his death in 1858; after which, what was left was dismantled for good. Only the rarest traces at ground level survive today, in the countryside of Labessière-Candeil, between Gaillac and Lavaur – a site almost erased, but whose name still designates this Tarn village that grew up around the vanished abbey.

Getting there : Commune of Labessière-Candeil, between Gaillac and Lavaur (Tarn)

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

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