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At the gates of the Black Mountain, Caunes-Minervois is situated among the vineyards, about twenty miles northeast of Carcassonne. Since the seventeenth century, the town is famous for the quality of its marble ornaments including the Trianon at Versailles and the Paris Opera.
The foundation of the Benedictine Abbey of St Peter and Paul de Caunes-Minervois is the work of Anian, a friend of St. Benedict of Aniane, in the late eighth century. Originally placed under the direct protection of the king, the monastery passed into the hands of the Counts of Barcelona before the fall Trencavel, who gave up their rights in 1195.
During the crusade against the Albigensians, Father de Caunes received several representatives of the Pope, came to preach the Catholic orthodoxy. In 1227, Pierre Isarn, Bishop Carcassès Cathar was burned in Caunes.
The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were marked by conflict for power between secular and religious authorities, and some prosperity of the monastery which significantly increases the number of its members, fifteen to thirty.
The establishment of the commendam in 1467 is the culmination of a long period of relaxation of monastic values ​​in Caunes. It was not until the early seventeenth century that a series of reforms initiated by Abbot Jean d'Alibert. He made particular restore the buildings and rebuild the house abbey. Then, the congregation of St. Maur took possession in 1663 and rebuilt the monastic buildings.
The abbey was alienated in 1791, with the exception of the church became communal property. The church was declared a historical monument in 1916, the buildings of the abbey in 1948.