The Benedictine Abbey at Clairac held an international reputation in politics, religion, literature and gastronomy and was said to have been founded in the C8th by the King of the Franks, Pepin the Short (714-768) father of Charlemagne. The Abbey, the monastic buildings and the small town around it, were at their peak during the C12th and C13th, wealthy and influential.

Inevitably, Clairac was besieged several times during the Hundred Years war and was also abandoned by both monks and villagers for a period during the C14th.

But by the late C16th Clairac was enjoying a degree of prosperity and development, including the creation of a river port. The abbey began to cultivate tobacco alongside the plum orchards that produced world famous Agen prunes and which the monks had originally brought to the locality from Damascus.

The Wars of Religion, however, saw the greatest impact. The Italian, Vatican appointed abbot controlled the great wealth that emanated from the rich agricultural land whilst the town was resolutely and resentfully Protestant. Clairac had become an important focus of Protestant, anti-Catholic, culture and compared with Calvin’s Geneva. The town was surrounded by impressive walls, however the king himself laid siege and the fortifications were destroyed in 1621.

At the same time the later 17th century saw the decline of the abbey, deserted by its monks, forgotten by its abbot. The abbey of Clairac – apart from its revenue – was no more than a shadow of itself. In the 18th century it was more or less decayed and with the Revolution, the abbey was dissolved entirely and the buildings sold as National Property to a succession of private individuals.

In the Clairac locality . . .