PRIEURÉ DE CÉZAS

PRIEURÉ DE CÉZAS

The priory includes a chapel, an ancient building now partially in ruins and a cimetery which still fulfils its role today. It is surrounded by a domain composed of terraces that were cultivated in different ways: gardens, vineyards, meadows, fruit and chestnut trees. Nowadays, it is filled with Montpellier maples, sessile oaks, dogwoods and other local varieties. Cedars and resinous trees, planted by the ONF (National Forests Office) in order to fight against the erosion of the land, are also to be added to this list. The priory has been affected by the XVIth c. French Wars of Religion and by the Cévennes War in the XVIIIth c. The furniture and a part of the presbytery were burned then. During the French Revolution, the church was kept as a monument, the parish bought by Jacques Roman -the last secularised prior and first elected mayor of the village. In the XIXth c, the church was still active until 1867, and the presbytery became a farm that was then abandoned in the XXth c.