Languedocien
Languedocien (French name, ), Languedocian, or Lengadocian () is an Occitan language, Occitan dialect spoken in rural parts of southern France such as Languedoc, Rouergue, Quercy, Agenais and southern Périgord. It is sometimes also called Lang ...
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, on the river
Dordogne
Dordogne ( , or ; ; ) is a large rural departments of France, department in south west France, with its Prefectures in France, prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and ...
. It is the site of the Brive–Souillac Airport, which opened in 2010. The town hosts an annual jazz festival in July. The abbey church has famous Romanesque carvings.
History
Souillac grew up around an abbey dependent on the Benedictine monastery of
Aurillac
Aurillac (; ) is the prefecture of the Cantal department, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France.
Geography
Aurillac is at above sea level and located at the foot of the Cantal mountains in a small sedimentary basin. The city is b ...
(Cantal). Two donors help start the community, Count Geraud, Abbot of Aurillac and Viscount Frotard in 909. When the Benedictines settled in the plain of Souillès, so named from a local word "souilh" meaning ''muddy and marshy place where wild boars wallowed'', they replaced a community supposedly founded there by
Saint Eloi
Eligius (; 11 June 588 – 1 December 660), venerated as Saint Eligius, was a Frankish goldsmith, courtier, and bishop who was chief counsellor to Dagobert I and later Bishop of Noyon–Tournai. His deeds were recorded in ''Vita Sancti Eligii'' ...
. The monks drained and transformed the swamp into a rich estate. The stone abbey church Abbatiale Sainte Marie was built in the 1100s and was completed in 1145.
During the
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a conflict between the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of France, France and a civil war in France during the Late Middle Ages. It emerged from feudal disputes over the Duchy ...
, the English troops besieged and occupied the town twice, once in 1351 and again in 1356. The abbey was granted its independence in 1473.
On 3 December 1508, as a result of a papal bull, the monastery was officially designated as an abbey. The
French Wars of Religion
The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...
brought further trouble to the town and abbey, both ransacked by Protestant forces between 1562 and 1573 and the parish church Saint-Martin was destroyed. The monastery buildings were burnt, the church ransacked and an attempt made to blow up its walls.
Restoration of the Abbey church and the monastery buildings began in 1632 by the lord-abbot Henry de la Mothe Houdancourt and was completed by 1712. By 1658, the abbey was now under the control of the
Congregation of Saint Maur
The Congregation of St. Maur, often known as the Maurists, were a congregation of French Benedictines, established in 1621, and known for their high level of scholarship. The congregation and its members were named after Saint Maurus (died 565), a ...
Constituent Assembly
A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...
announced the confiscation of all church assets by the state on 2 November 1789. With a decree on 14 April 1790, it returned the Abbey to the civil authority to sell its assets with just the Eglise Sainte-Marie now remaining. The monks were expelled on 25 November 1790 and the assets sold the same day for 11,000 livres.
The abbey church was turned into a Temple of Reason in March 1794. It reopened as a church in 1801 and received its first priest in 1803 as a parish church. Repairs on the church continued until 1838 and it was proclaimed a national monument in 1841. The state took over the repairs of the exterior between 1842 and 1848 including two aspses.
Geography
Souillac is in the upper Dordogne Valley where the river cuts through the limestone plateau of Haut-Quercy, a historic name for the northern part of the Department of Lot. This is part of the Massif Central, an elevated region in south central France. To the north of Souillac lies the commune of Lachapelle-Auzac, to the east Mayrac and Pinsac, to the south
Lanzac
Lanzac () is a commune in the Lot department in south-western France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in ...
Orliaguet
Orliaguet (; ) is a former Communes of France, commune in the Dordogne Departments of France, department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. On 1 January 2022, it was merged into the new commune of Pechs-de-l'Espérance.Salignac-Eyvigues, Borrèze and Gignac.Souillac station has rail connections to Brive-la-Gaillarde, Cahors and Toulouse.
Town
Souillac is a small market town and is the hub for the area. This is an agricultural region which is known for its walnuts, strawberries and quiet, rural way of life.
Demographics
Culture and contemporary life
Places and monuments
* The abbey buildings of the l'Abbaye Sainte-Marie, rebuilt in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, listed on 11 January 1991 as historical monuments;
* The 12th century L'église abbatiale Sainte-Marie de Souillac, classified in 1840 as a historical monument. Several objects are referenced in the Palissy database. It has a Stoltz gallery organ, the instrumental part of which dates from 1850 was classified on 12 May 1978 as a historical monument. It was restored in 1988, and again in 2017, by the organ builder Daniel Birouste. Its titular organist has been Christophe Loiseleur Des Longchamps since 1991;
* the old church of Saint-Martin and its belfry, classified in 1925 as a historical monument;
* Dolmen Laval, also called Tumulus Laval;
* The Pont Louis-Vicat, the first bridge in the world to use an artificial cement invented by
Louis Vicat
Louis Vicat (31 March 1786, Nevers – 10 April 1861, Grenoble) was a French engineer.
He graduated from the École Polytechnique in 1804 and the École des Ponts et Chaussées in 1806.
Vicat studied the setting of mortars and developed his ow ...
;
* The banks of the Dordogne river;
* The Viaduc de la Borrèze, also known as the Aubugues viaduct, from the name of the district it overlooks, built from 1881 to 1885 above the Borrèze river, listed on 28 December 1984 as a historical monument. It is the longest of the seven railway structures (along with the Sorbier viaduct, the Boulet viaduct, the Marjaudes viaduct, the Présignac viaduct, the Lamothe viaduct and the Bramefond viaduct) which have earned Souillac its nickname of the City of Seven Viaducts;
* The Musée de l'Automate. It houses a collection of more than 300 mechanical toys from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from one of the most important houses in the field: the Maison Roullet-Decamps;
* Around this museum was a trail of animated signs in the streets of the city, most of them made by a local ironworker;
* The market hall built from 1832 to 1836, listed in 2004 as a historical monument;
* Artists' studios;
* The Ancienne chapelle Notre-Dame du Port, destroyed for the construction of the Louis-Vicat bridge;
* Chapelle Saint-Étienne Lacombe de Custals;
* Église de Bourzolles. While it was supposed to be razed, the church was sold by the city of Souillac to Étienne Cluzel, a lover of old stones, who restored it, in the company of relatives.
Tourism
The town is on the main railway line from
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
to
Toulouse
Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...
and is about south of the Brive–Souillac Airport which has international flights. The most notable building in the town is the abbey church of Sainte-Marie. The domed roofs are similar to but rather smaller than those of Périgueux Cathedral. Fragments of the original Romanesque sculptures are grouped just inside the west door. Behind the abbey church is the Musée de l'Automate which has a large collection of mechanical figures and dolls.
An international jazz festival is held annually in the town in July. The festival was started in 1976 by a group of volunteers enthused by Sim Copans, a United States Army non-combatant in World War I who came to live in nearby Lanzac. The festival features live concerts and other jazz-related activities.
Gallery
File:Souillac - Halle.jpg, Market hall
File:Souillac - Ancienne église Saint-Martin - 1.jpg, Old Church of Saint-Martin
File:Souillac Bourzolles église (1).jpg, Bourzolles church
File:Souillac - Town hall.jpg, Town hall
File:Extérieur de l'abbatiale Sainte-Marie (Souillac, 46) - 01.jpg, St Mary's abbey church
File:Souillac, abbaye Sainte-Marie - panoramio.jpg, Abbey buildings
File:Souillac - Abbatiale Sainte-Marie - Portail - 2.jpg, Relief of Saint Benedict and Saint Peter surrounding monk Theophilus' miracle, on the 12th-century romanesque portal inside of St Mary's abbey church
File:Souillac - Abbatiale Sainte-Marie - Portail - 3.jpg, Relief of prophet Isaiah, on the 12th-century romanesque portal inside of St Mary's abbey church
File:Dordogne - panoramio.jpg, Dordogne River crossing
See also
*
Communes of the Lot department
The following is a list of the 312 communes of the Lot department of France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Gu ...