Timeline

Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Benedictine priory of Varen, mentioned as early as 972 in an act, was late attached to the abbey of Aurillac. At the end of the 11th century, the monks rebuilt the church and built an adjacent convent. This priory, located in the present Occitanie, became a place of religious and seigneurial power, marked by the addition of a castle at the beginning of the sixteenth century to house the deans.

In the 14th century, the convent building – the only vestige in elevation of the old monastery – was built with vaults in a full-cinetre cradle on the ground floor and on the 1st floor, as well as a vaulted tower of warheads. Secularized in 1561, the monastery gradually declined: its cloister was already ruined at the end of the seventeenth century. The Revolution completed its dispersal, with the sale of the castle and the convent wing as national property in 1793.

The castle, built between the late 15th and early 16th centuries on possibly 14th century substructures, was remodeled in the 17th century with the addition of a south-east wing. In 1616 cover work (wood and tiles) was carried out there. Today, the 14th century Conventual Building, classified as Historic Monument in 1999 and owned by the municipality, is the last tangible testimony of this priory, waiting for rehabilitation.

The church, the cloister (disappeared) and the castle formed a coherent whole, reflecting the architectural and political transformations of the site, from medieval origins to secularization. The revolutionary sale of 1793 marked the end of its religious use, while the current remains illustrate its past importance in the Montauban region.

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