the south portal and with the late 11th-century cloister, one of the oldest and most
complete Romanesque cloisters in France.
Alternating single and double marble columns carry the seventy-six capitals of the
four cloister galleries; the pointed arches and upper walls are a 13th-century restoration.
On the piers are marble reliefs of Abbot Durandus de Bredon, first Cluniac abbot of
Moissac, and nine Apostles. Reliefs and capitals are related to contemporary Toulousan
ateliers at Saint-Sernin and the cloister of La Daurade.
The Romanesque church was consecrated in 1063. The domed church of the following
century was reconstructed after the Hundred Years’ War in the southern Gothic style. On
the exterior, the lower walls are Romanesque; the upper, in brick, are 15th-century.
Moissac (Tarn-et-Garonne), sculpture
of the prophet Jeremiah. Photograph
courtesy of Rebecca A.Baltzer.
The dates of the west tower and the famous south portal have not been satisfactorily
determined. The projecting porch—with representations on its lateral walls of Avarice
and Luxuria, Dives and Lazarus, the death of the evil rich man and his torture in Hell
(west wall); the Annunciation (Gabriel is replaced), the Visitation, and scenes from the
The Encyclopedia 1183