The bastides
Five towns and villages in the Rouergue region have criteria that make them qualify as bastide. At first glance, these places can be recognized by their regular, more or less orthogonal plan (a plan that seems to be based on the model of ancient cities and which contrasts with the heap of houses that were often the villages of the early Middle Ages built near the castle or the church), the bastides were most often built on a virgin site. At a quiet time in the political history of the kingdom, at the beginning of the 13th century, the powerful implemented a real policy of territorial planning, their first goal being to develop the land. The second objective was to ensure public safety by grouping the population in fortified centres. Over a period of about a century and a half, from the 1220s onwards, 315 bastides were built from scratch or formed from existing villages in south-west France.
The bastides of Rouerga
In Villefranche-de-Rouergue, Sauveterre-de-Rouergue, Najac, Villeuneuve-de-Rouergue and La Bastide-l'Evêque. The typical bastide model is built around a central square, square, intended as a place of exchange, it is from the outset or will be later lined with covered, these overhangs supported by arcades on which rests the first floor of the houses. From the four corners, four streets lead outwards, others are laid out at right angles and constitute subdivisions. Originally, the houses were often of the same size, and later, they were grouped together due to fortune. The whole bastide is surrounded by a wall, sometimes by a ditch.
Villefranche-de-Rouergue and Sauveterre-de-Rouergue are the perfect model of this geometrical and planned urbanism: a large square in the center where the economic, political and judicial activity is concentrated, a closed enclosure, whose doors are at the outlet of the four main streets, a ditch, later filled in and often transformed into a ring road. In Villeneuve-d'Aveyron and Najac, the bastide was superimposed on an already existing habitat. Finally, La Bastide-l'Evêque, founded in 1280 by the bishop of Rodez, is distinguished by the smallness of its plan, the centre of which is occupied by a 14th and 15th century church.The burons
These traditional buildings are the sign of the Aubrac, of a way of life and of an era. This is what we call the rustic houses in which the shepherds came to spend the summer. Built in basalt and granite, the burons are half buried in the ground to protect themselves from the cold and wind! Their roofs of lauzes often join the ground. The interior is austere, you enter through a low door. There are one or two rooms: a common room with a dirt or stone floor, lit by a small window to the south and a fireplace! A workroom where the buronniers press the curdled milk and make the cheese. There is also a maturing cellar. Although cheese making has been going on since Roman times, it only really took off in the 19th century. The number of burons in Aubrac increased considerably, reaching 300, and 1 200 seasonal workers were employed there at the beginning of the 19th century.
The hospital commanderies
The opulence of these commanderies, based on their agro-pastoral activities, their good conduct by the religious orders, the absence of major destruction over the centuries explain the importance of the current heritage. For many years, the Departmental Council has been trying to preserve and enhance this heritage, and to this end it has created the Conservatory of the Templar and Hospitaller Larzac, made up of scientists and political players, and an information centre has been set up. It is responsible for various information centres set up in the commanderies themselves. It also organises discovery tours of the Templar and Hospitaller Larzac.
These sites are remarkable for their architecture: they have preserved the walls and fortifications erected between the 14th and 15th centuries, the medieval buildings and the opulent houses of the 17th and 18th centuries. The streets have a medieval atmosphere, as if time had stood still. They have benefited from restoration programmes and are the setting for medieval events during the summer.Castles: the route of the lords of Rouergue
This association groups together 19 castles in Aveyron, Lot, Tarn and Cantal. Our department in particular, knows a beautiful abundance, whose origins are sought in the political past of this vast territory, is also due to the position of this department, at the crossroads of the north-south ways, towards Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle or towards the sea. Most of these fortified houses were built between the 10th and 12th centuries, the medieval foundation was then modified over the centuries, enlarged at the end of the Middle Ages and made more comfortable at the end of the troubled times, then they became pleasure residences between the Renaissance and the 18th century.
What these castles have in common is that they have benefited from major renovation work by their private or public owners. Thanks to the association La Route des Seigneurs du Rouergue, each of them has been given a presentation booklet that invites you to discover them. This dive into another universe, out of time, includes a visit of the restored parts of these houses. Guided tours have the advantage of bringing the place to life and the discovery facilities complete this intention. Depending on the castle, this can be an illumination that magnifies the architecture, animations in period costumes, the re-enactment of a siege, jousting or the singing of troubadours, some gardens have been recreated and populated with animals. These residences have also become superb discovery areas for children. The abundance is such, the development so successful that one has the impression, at each crossroads, to put its steps in those of a knight in armor or of some manant who contemplates, the wide eyes, the beautiful residences of former days. The art here is to have kept these places alive.
