Prieuré Saint Martin

According to the writings (including the well-documented book by Anatole de Charmasse from the 19th century), this is the history of the Priory:
After the passage of Saint Martin, who evangelised the region, this place was the first Christian sanctuary in the area. The exact time of the Priory's foundation is unknown. The first mention of the Priory dates back to 843 in a diploma by which Charles the Bald confirmed the authority of the church of Autun over this establishment. In fact, its origin predates this date and is confused with that of the church of Autun. In 994, the Bishop of Autun ceded the Priory to the Abbot of Cluny, Odilon, and among the many Priors of Mesvres, Hugues de Beaufort became Abbot of Cluny and Pierre de Beaufort became Pope under the name of Gregory XI, the last Pope in Avignon, whom he left for Rome in 1377.
The seigneurial rights enjoyed by the prior were numerous: high, medium and low justice, the right to watch and guard for all the inhabitants of Mesvres and the surrounding area, the right to banality (oven and mill), to name but the main ones.
The Priory remained under the authority of the Abbey of Cluny until the revolution. After the revolution, the Priory buildings were transformed into a farm.
In its heyday, the Priory buildings were arranged around the cloister. The Priory church consisted of a single nave, to which the addition of two chapels gave the shape of a cross. A beautiful square tower, 49m high, stood in the centre of the monastery. All that remains of the original buildings is the large L-shaped building which housed the flats of the Prior and the monks and one of the two side chapels of the priory church. The other buildings have disappeared, the cloister has been destroyed, the tower collapsed in 1836 and the nave has been replaced by a barn. The monks' mill on the edge of the stream fed by the Mesvrin still exists, it has been remodelled and is now used as a dwelling.

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