Abbatiale Saint-Volusien

Built around 860, the Abbatiale Saint-Volusien was a privileged place for political and religious life of Foix. The church is located at the meeting point of two rivers in the Ariège and Arget and is, along with the castle of Foix, one of the symbolic monuments of the past wealth in the town of Foix.

Although many alterations to the abbey of Saint-Volusien have been made, especially following the damage caused by religious wars, reconstruction work was undertaken in the seventeenth century, and a Gothic style church was built on the remains of the old Romanesque church. Finally the recent restoration work which began in 1963 has helped the building regain its original simple beauty.

The medieval church, the Abbatiale Saint-Volusien preserves, today, its portal in which arches fall in four capitals, decorated with plant and lions motifs, the base walls of the nave and the crypt. On the southern wall, a first seat height paired stoneware; an oculus in cupola brick indicates the archaic building. Inside, the stalls of the seventeenth century came from the Abbey of Saint-Sernin in Toulouse. There is also an organ with 40 games built by Fermi in 1869 and restored in 2007.