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Rue Lacordaire 81540 Sorèze
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n the heart of the Toulouse - Albi - Carcassonne triangle in the south of the Tarn Département, Sorèze lies on one of the last foothills of the Montagne Noire - the Black Mountain - below the fortress of Berniquaut, on one of the major pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostella.
In 754, Pépin d'Aquitaine founded an abbey on swampland in Sorèze, at the foot of the northern slope of the mountain.
Over the centuries, the abbey was destroyed and pillaged several times. King Louis XIII gave it to Dom Barthélémy Robin in 1636, and he in turn restored the buildings and made the monastery an affiliate of the congregation of Saint-Maur. The Benedictines opened a school in 1682.
Louis XVI raised it to the rank of Ecole Royale Militaire in 1776 and its teaching drew in boarders from the far-off islands.
In 1854, with the arrival of Father Lacordaire, a Dominican, the school gained a new impetus and its fame spread well beyond the region and the borders of the country.
Old pupils association: www.soreze.com
The Abbey School and its 6-hectare estate, along with part of the village of Sorèze, were listed as historic monuments by the Ministry of Culture in 1988
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