Musee des Augustins

musee des augustinsOne of my favorite museums in Toulouse is Musee des Augustins. The museum is housed in a former Gothic convent with lots of rooms and winding passages to explore.  The cloister is a highlight of the museum for me personally as lining the sides of the cloister are gargoyles, brought down and exhibited at ground level to see up close and personal.

From Wikipedia:

gargoyleforweb.jpgIn architecture, a gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building. The term originates from the French gargouille, originally “throat” or “gullet”;[1] cf. Latin gurgulio, gula, and similar words derived from the root gar, “to swallow”, which represented the gurgling sound of water.

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