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Origin and history

The priory of Port-Dieu, formerly called priory of Trappes, was founded around 1060 by Robert de Turlande, founder of the Abbey of the Chaise-Dieu. Installed on land donated by Raoul Passereau, a converted former troubadour, it initially housed sixteen Benedictine monks. This monastery became one of the most influential in the region, with a jurisdiction extending to 31 cures in Limousin and Auvergne in the 12th century. The church of the Manents, built between 1200 and 1300 outside the enclosure, was dedicated to Our Lady and then to Saint Caprais after the arrival of her relics.

During the religious wars, the priory suffered serious damage: in 1597, the Huguenot Laforet burned the chapel, looted the archives and partially demolished the buildings. Although Anne de Ventadour financed a reconstruction, the monks used the parish church instead. In the 17th century, the abbey of the Chaise-Dieu tried to reform the monacal customs, then very loose, while the parish church was repaired in 1695. The decline accelerated in the 18th century, with only four monks in 1730, before the abolition of the priory in 1746 and its sale as a national good in 1790.

In the 19th century, the church, in ruins, benefited from partial restorations: decoration painted in 1894 by Mr.Chabourlat, repairs in 1895, and installation of stained glass windows in 1920 thanks to a local subscription. Despite its inscription in historical monuments in 1988, the building and the presbytery remained in poor condition until the 1990s, when a safeguard campaign was launched. Today, the chapel of the Manents, a mixture of elements of the twelfth, fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, bears witness to this turbulent monacal past.

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