Abbaye Saint-Julien, Benedictine abbey in Tours, France

Abbaye Saint-Julien is a former Benedictine abbey in Old Tours whose buildings date from the 10th to the 16th century. Its light beige stone walls are braced by buttresses, and a tall square tower on the right carries a dark pyramidal roof topped by a small cross, with two pairs of tall narrow arched openings below it. The main body extends left under a steep dark roof to a rounded apse.

Clovis I founded a Notre-Dame oratory here in 508 after his victory at Vouillé. Around 575 Gregory of Tours gave the monks relics of St Julien and imposed the Benedictine rule. The Normans destroyed the abbey in 853; around 940 Archbishop Theotolon rebuilt it and consecrated the first abbey church in 943.

The name Saint-Julien comes from relics of St Julien of Brioude that Gregory of Tours gave the monks around 575. The former abbey is no longer a place of worship; its buildings are classified or listed historic monuments. Odon, the first abbot, and Archbishop Theotolon, who died in 947, were buried in the abbey church, and their graves were found in the 19th century.

The abbey sits in a central location in Tours and is easy to reach on foot, even from the train station. The site has good connections to the city's public transportation network.

The chronicle records that in 996 Abbot Bernard "had a tower built", without saying whether it stood free in the abbey grounds or was added to the Carolingian church; no trace of it survives. The graves of Abbot Odo (d. 943) and Archbishop Theotolon (d. 947) were found in the chancel during 19th-century work.