A little history of Saint-Martial collège in Avignon
And also
The tops
Natural history in collège
This old religious building houses the current Protestant temple. In the small public garden Agricol-Perdiguier, we used to find remains…
This building has a very, very long history. It successively housed a Benedictine priory, Saint-Martial collège and museum of Natural History!
Kings palace
Abbot of Cluny Jacques I de Causans (1374-1383) founded the collège in 1378. A collège directly managed by powerful Cluny abbey…
In fact, monks from Cluny settled in Avignon in 1363. Their abbot, Ardouin de La Roche, owned a house with gardens in Avignon.
This house was called ″kings of Majorca’s palace″ and it belonged to Hugues de Baux, seneschal of Provence. On April 21th 1379, pope Clement VII allowed Jacques to found a collège dedicated to Saint-Martial, upon lands bought by Ardouin.
Claustrales and scolares
They founded the collège with a church, a cemetery and buildings to accommodate monks.
But quickly, the priory fell in decadence: in 1428, one student left! The buildings were abandoned… Fortunately, a prior, dom de Simiane de La Coste, restored the church.