An Augustine monastery turned museum, a lovely example of southern Gothic architecture, the Musées des Augustins (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Toulouse - Museum of Fine Arts, Toulouse) is listed as an historical monument. It dates mainly from the 14th and 15th centuries, except for the small Classic cloister, which was completed in 1626. The monument became home to the museum in 1793, very shortly after the Louvre was established. On the site of the old refectory (demolished in 1868), Denis Darcy built an imposing, eclectic construction (1893-1903), inspired by a project of Viollet-le-Duc's. From 1950 to 1980, successive phases of restoration returned the monument to its original proportions, often revealing previously unsuspected decorative elements.

Nowadays, the museum's collections include over four thousand works. They have been built up around a core of works seized during the French Revolution, the collection of the old Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture of Toulouse and works from numerous religious buildings destroyed in Toulouse in the 19th Century. To these have been added works loaned by national collections, acquisitions by the City, bequests and donations.

You can find more information at the museum's home page (external link).

Recommended viewing from the collection:

• St Paul by Nicolas Tournier,
• Annunciation by a French Romanesque sculptor.