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Origin and history

The Church of St Peter of Carennac, located in the Lot in Occitanie, is a former Benedictine priory dependent on the Abbey of Cluny. Founded in the 11th century on the basis of a primitive church dedicated to Saint Saturnin (mentioned in 932), the priory develops through successive donations, becoming a dean in 1295. Its church, built between 1090 and 1110, blends Romanesque elements (nave, carved capitals) with a reworked choir in the 13th century. The cloister, partially Romanesque and partly Gothic, was rebuilt after the Hundred Years War by Dean Jean Dubrueilh (1478-1507).

The richness of the priory, attested by papal bubbles and Cluny's minutes, allows its embellishment (carved porch around 1150, murals). Destroyed during the Hundred Years' War (the parish was declared deserta in 1360), it was reborn in the Renaissance with the addition of a castle of deans and northern chapels. In the 17th century, the Salignac family of Mothe Fénelon took control of it, but the decline began: in 1787 the monastery was abolished, and its buildings sold as national property in 1791. The church, classified in 1893, and the cloister (classified in 1914) remain as evidence of this monastic past.

The cloister, mid-roman (northern gallery) mid-gothic (broken arcades), organizes around a courtyard lined with conventual buildings. The capitular hall, vaulted dogives, preserves carved cloves representing monks. A spiral staircase serves the upper galleries. Nearby, the castle of deans (XVI century) and side chapels complete the whole. A wall painting from the 15th to 16th century, discovered in 1977, illustrates the "Dit" of the three dead and the three alive, a moral reminder of the vanity of earthly pleasures.

The destruction of wars (Cent Years, Religion) and the revolutionary spoliations altered the site. Conventual buildings, transformed into agricultural premises, lost part of their decor. Despite this, the church and its cloister remain major examples of Romanesque and Gothic art in Quercy, marked by clunisian influence and Renaissance reconstructions. Their classification as historical monuments today protects its architectural and spiritual heritage.

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