There was an ancient abbey here in the ninth century, but the bishopric was not founded until 1318, and was suppressed in 1790.
The most notable feature of this ancient church is the wall which surrounds or forms the apside. This quintupled pan is separated by four great pillars, in imitation of the Corinthian order; though for that matter they may as well be referred to as genuine antiques—which they probably are—and be done with it.
The capitals and the cornice which surmounts them are richly ornamented with sculptured foliage, and, so far as it goes, the whole effect is one of liberality and luxury of treatment.
Immediately beside the ruins of this old-time cathedral is the Église St. André of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
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ST. PIERRE DE MONTPELLIER
| La Ville de Montpellier |
| "Elle est charmante et douce ... |
| Avec son vast ciel, toujours vibrant et pur, |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . |
| Elle est charmante avec ses brunes jeunes filles |
| ... le noir diamant de leurs yeux!" |
| —Henri de Bornier. |
Montpellier is seated upon a hill, its foot washed by two small and unimportant rivers.
A seventeenth-century writer has said: "This city is not very ancient, though now it be the biggest, fairest, and richest in Languedoc, after Toulouse."
