Today Montréal is a small village (pop. 200), but here was already a fortified settlement, when the Normans raided the area and pillaged the place in 888. From the 11th century on here was a castle. Anseric I, Seigneur de Montréal, obviously listened to Bernard de Clairvaux, who preached the Second Crusade at near Vezelay in 1146.

Returning home from the crusade Anseric I founded a collegiate and commissioned the erection of the collegiate church, seen here. The church was completed around 1170 by Anseric II. The convent existed upto the French Revolution.

For a year, the church served as a "Temple de la Raison", the according inscription is fading over the portal, before it was converted into a parish church. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was impressed by the church and cared for the restauration in the first half of the 19th century.