Barbarian Gold in southern France

Toulouse, Haute Garonne
 

Visigothic pillars, once in La Daurade, can be seen in the museum at Toulouse.
The church of the Daurade in Toulouse is often called an Arian temple, being one of the earliest Visigothic churches in existence.  It was constructed in the 5th century on the banks of the Garonne and decorated inside with mosaics that had come from Ravenna.  The plan was decagonal (ten-sided) and it was surmounted by an ornamented coupole.  It is now a “chapelle palatine des rois visigoth toulousain.”  It’s shape is exactly that of the church over Théodoric the Great’s tomb at Ravenna, which could have first been built at the same time as Visigothic churches in Ravenna, around 431. 

  At this time there was a council at Epheseus which decreed that the Virgin was officially the mother of Christ the God and no longer just the mother of Christ the Man.  Arian churches became out of date.
    But the religious archeologists who have studied the famous mosaics agree La Daurade in Toulouse is an Arian temple that has been added to later by Catholics.  Among the many beautiful images are Mary with Jesus and St. Anne, Mary sitting on a throne holding in her hand a cross of gold, Mary veiled but still with her halo, and one of Jesus, called Saviour.
  

All that remains of the Visigothic château, now in le Jardin des Plants.

   At Toulouse, the famous “chateau Narbonnais”, which was the home of all the Raymonds, the Counts of Toulouse, in the 12th and 13th centuries, was Visigothic, its position was at the southern extremity to the south of the town’s enclosing wall.  When Simon de Montfort invaded and destroyed Toulouse during the Crusade against the Cathars, he left that palace undamaged for himself to stay in.
  There is a magnificent museum at Toulouse.  Click here for more.