The Church of Saint-Volusien is an abbatial church in

Foix Foix (; oc, Fois ; ca, Foix ) is a commune, the former capital of the County of Foix. It is the capital of the department of Ariège as it is the seat of the Préfecture of that department. Foix is located in the Occitanie region of southwe ...

, Ariège in southwestern France. It already existed in the 12th century and was re-built and renovated several times.

History

In 1104, the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine (

Augustinians Augustinians are members of Christian religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about 400 AD by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13 ...

) took possession of the abbey that housed the relics of saint

Volusianus of Tours Saint Volusian (french: Saint-Volusien) ( la, Volusianus) was the seventh Bishop of Tours, from 491 to 498. He came from a rich and pious senatorial family, and was a close relative of his predecessor Saint Perpetuus, as well as of Ruricius of Lim ...

. They decided to build a three-nave church with a transept. In the 14th century, the Romanesque apse was replaced with a polygonal choir. During the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estim ...

, the abbey was destroyed and the relics were burnt. The reconstruction works started in 1609 and probably ended around 1670 when the new vault was installed. The Medieval church still has remnants of the portal and the base of the nave's walls. The church was classified as a

Historic Monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

in 1964.

Organ

The church already had an organ in 1502, but little is known about it. The current 40-stops romantic organ was installed by Leroy-Legendre & Fermis père & fils in 1869 and restored by Lucien Simon and Jean-Pascal Villard in 2004. It was classified as a Historic Monument object on November 17, 1997.

Gallery

References

{{reflist Augustinian churches in France Romanesque architecture in France 17th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in France Churches in Ariège (department) Monuments historiques of Ariège (department)