Musée des Augustins (Augustins Museum), Toulouse (must see)

The Augustins Museum is a secularized convent turned into an art gallery/museum. It was built in the gothic style in 1309. By a decree of the French Convention of 1795 the convent became open to the public as a museum.

The collections hold as many as 4,000 works of art, some of which are confiscated church property. The sculpture collection is the result of salvaging operations of curators. The 12th century Romanesque sculptures were saved from the Priory of Notre Dame de la Daurade, the Basilica of Saint-Sernin and the Cathedral of Saint-Etienne.

The museum's founder, Jean-Antoine Chaptal wanted that "each collection presents an interesting series of paintings representing all the masters, all the genres and all the schools." To help fulfill that goal fifteen museums like the Augustins Museum were founded in each province.