Village of Vabres l’Abbaye

Vabres has kept many testimonies of its eventful history: in 863, a Benedictine monastery was founded in Vabres by the Count of Toulouse. Vabres abbey soon became the great abbey of the southern Rouergue amassing a wealth of lands and churches. In 1317 Pope John XXII, second French Pope in Avignon selected Vabres abbey as the seat of a new diocese comprising all the parishes situated south of the Tarn river. Vabres was thus under the Bishop’s and the Count’s authorities for almost five centuries up to 1790. Throughout its history, Vabres has undergone some tumultuous periods: the One Hundred Years War and the violent religious wars, yet the Gothic cathedral with its exceptional organ, the Episcopalian palace and some old aristocratic mansions have been preserved.