Saint-Pons

Saint-Pons-de-Thomières grew around a Benedictine abbey founded in 936 by Raymond Pons, count of Toulouse. The fortified settlement around the abbey faced Thomières on the opposite bank of the Jaur, where another walled quarter had streets of shops. In the early fourteenth century Pope John XXII made Saint-Pons the seat of a new diocese, and the abbey church became a cathedral. A Gothic replacement for its Romanesque choir was begun in the late fifteenth century, but the work was still unfinished when Protestant forces took the town in 1567. The cloister and cathedral suffered severe damage during the Wars of Religion, and restoration took many years. The cathedral chapter was secularized in 1615. In the seventeenth century Bishop Percin de Montgaillard founded a college, restored episcopal buildings and reformed the hospital, leaving his mark on the town's religious and civic life.