Our Blog - Lombez, France

At a little over 1,000 inhabitants, Lombez is a quaint little town in the Gers department. The town dates back to the Gallo-Roman period and several objects dating from that timeframe have been found. It was the seat of a Benedictine abbey in the 9th century.

The main site in the town is the Cathedral of Saint-Marie. There are some very tight ties with Toulouse here: the tower is Toulouse-style tower and some of the capitals from the former cloister of the Abbey are on display at the Augustins Museum in Toulouse. Supposedly one of the capitals from the former cloister was a copy of a capital from the cloister of the cathedral of Toulouse. The brick church dates to the 14th-century brick church and you can see the ornate pink-and-white five-tiered octagonal bell tower (Toulouse-style) that was constructed around 1346. The typical blank west façade of Southern French Gothic is relieved only by a small roundel and the Flamboyant entrance in stone. The severe exterior is characteristic of the Toulouse region with tall buttresses around the chevet.

The Southern Gothic (or Toulouse Gothic) interior looks very much like the interior of the Convent of the Jacobins in Toulouse. You can see the high, ribbed Gothic vaults that hold up the central nave. I didn't think the main altarpiece was that great, but I did like this altarpiece in one of the side chapels.

The stained-glass windows here are quite nice and date from the 15th and 16th centuries and were restored in the 19th century.

There are a few of these lovely half-timbered houses sprinkled around the old town. This one is facing the old market square.