Abbaye de Villelongue

In the hollow of the valley of Vernassonne, three kilometers from the town of Saint-Martin-le-Viel, this former Cistercian abbey attracted by its confidentiality and family.
The monastery was first established in the territory of the neighboring town of Saissac before being transferred to its present location in the middle of the twelfth century, a donation was granted in 1149 to the Cistercian Order and William Monk came with 12 companions of the Abbey of Bonnefont de Comminges. The construction of the monastery was begun in 1180.
In the early thirteenth century, Simon de Montfort rewarded the monks of Villelongue their position against the Cathars: they donated a lot of land and the village of Saint-Martin. Villelongue Abbey became a powerful and rich. Subsequently, she enjoys the protection of the King of France.
Weakened by plague in the fourteenth century and by the strife in the fifteenth century, the abbey began to decline gradually until the Revolution when it was sold as national property and turned into farms. The field is split into two parts: on one side the ruins of the Abbey, the other a group of dwellings, probably the old house abbey.
From 1916, the successive owners will attempt to remove the abbey from oblivion and begin the most urgent works. Colonel Maissiat in 1916 obtained the rank of the Abbey as a historical monument, preventing the sale and dismantling of the south gallery of the cloister.
In 1964 it was acquired by the family Eloffe who still owns today.