Abbaye Sainte-Marie de Lagrasse

Between Carcassonne and Narbonne, Lagrasse is installed in the valley of the Orbieu, in the Massif des Corbières. The river separates the Orbieu Abbey, standing on the left bank of the village, stretched on the right bank and classified as one of the most beautiful villages in France.
The charter of "foundation" of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary Orbieu back in the late eighth century, however, an institution must have existed before the Carolingian period. The Legend of Philomena, the thirteenth century manuscript recounts the legendary founding of the abbey.
The monastery soon Lagrasse knows prosperity, its property extending to Spain in the ninth century and the tenth century. The political power of the abbey appears mainly during the crusade against the Albigensians: Alignan Benedict, abbot of Lagrasse from 1224 to 1230, often played the role of intermediary between occupier and occupied. It was he who obtained the submission of Carcassonne to the King (1226).
Among the abbots Lagrasse important, it should be noted reformer Abbot Auger Gogenx from 1279 to 1309, to whom we owe most of the medieval buildings of the abbey.
After suffering the troubles of the fourteenth century, the monastery is experiencing a revival of artistic activity in the fifteenth century under Abbot Peter of the Twelve Abzac. The use of the commendam in 1502 and then the connection to the congregation of St. Maur in 1662, occasioned an intellectual revival. In the eighteenth century, under the leadership of another builder Abbot, Armand Bazin de Bezons that will be built the new palace and abbey cloister. During the Revolution, the abbey will be sold in two lots, a division which has continued until today.