Monastère et Cloître des Augustins
Next to the church of the penitents, or chapel of the Augustine monks, the monastery and its convent delight the visitors.
Around 1347, the Augustinians, driven out of Ste Eulalie d'Olt, settled in St Geniez and established a church, monastery and cemetery there. From then on, the buildings developed into a vast space around which the houses of the new town were built (the old town being built on the right bank, near the castle and the parish church)
At the end of the 16th century, the ravages of the Huguenots left the monastery in a very bad state. The repair of the buildings would have been carried out by Jean Parate, around the middle of the following century
During the Revolution, the monks were expelled from the monastery and robbed of their property
The mayor of the time bought the whole and gave it to the commune. The buildings around the cloister later housed the town hall, the commercial court (until 1925), the gendarmerie and prisons (until 1943), the fire station and the public school (until 1969)
In 1983, the Pierre Lenoir gallery was inaugurated to host temporary exhibitions, and finally, the Tourist Office replaced the municipal library in 2007.
