History History

We are then in the Jurassic era on the current commune of Crayssac. A sun-flooded lagoon welcomes crustaceans, crocodilians, turtles, dinosaurs and pterosaurs which have left their mark on this place of life.

Men chose caves in the Quercy and Périgord region for shelter. Thus we find on the walls of the caves of Cougnac near Gourdon or in the cave of Pech Merle in Cabrerets drawings drawn by these inhabitants for eternity.

There are 600 Celtic funerary monuments in the Quercy region, including dolmens and megaliths. They are particularly found in the Causses between Cajarc and Gréalou, in Padirac, Prayssac, Livernon and Limogne-en-Quercy.

It is Celtic peoples probably coming from the south of Germany who populated this region through Aquitaine, creating the Cadurques people (in Latin Cadurci). The name "Quercy" would come from the Latin name Cadurci, Gallic people, fusion of Celts and Aquitans.

The Gallic oppidum of Uxellodunum at Puy d'Issolud in the commune of Vayrac is now recognised by the scientific community as the site of the last battle of the Gallic War.

The Romans founded the town of Divona (Cahors) close to a resurgence venerated by the Gauls in honour of the goddess Divona, in the centre of the Cadourques territory, inside a meander of the Lot. The town quickly became opulent, with an important commercial and artisanal activity. Archaeologists have found the remains of sumptuous villas, a temple, a theatre, baths, an amphitheatre, etc.

Quercy was successively ravaged by the Vandals, the Alains, the Sueves, the Visigoths, the Franks, then the Arabs and the Normans.

With the advent of Charles Martel in 714, Quercy became part of the duchy of Aquitaine or Gascony, then of the kingdom of Carloman when Pépin le Bref divided it up between his sons in 768.

Founding of the Saint-Sauveur Abbey by Pépin I of Aquitaine at the origin of the town of Figeac.

First mention of the town of Souillac in a text, the testament of St Géraud, Count and Abbot of Aurillac.

Cahors is undergoing the Albigensian crusade against the Cathars.

Cahors is one of the most important cities in France. It has three fortified bridges, including the famous Valentré Bridge built from 1308.

The cadurcian Jacques Duèze became the 196th pope under the name of John XXII, one of the first of the series of popes of Avignon. He founded the universities of Cahors and Cambridge.

The Quercy region was ravaged by the religious wars between Haut-Quercy - Cahors - Catholic and Bas-Quercy - Montauban - which sided with the Reformation.

At the time of the Edict of Nantes, which put an end to the civil war, Quercy was integrated into Guyenne et Gascogne.

Quercy becomes the department of the Lot with Cahors as its capital. However, it was not until 1808 that the present outline of the Lot took shape thanks to Napoleon Bonaparte who distinguished the Lot (Haut-Quercy) and Tarn-et-Garonne (Bas-Quercy).

Jean-François Champollion, born in Figeac, deciphers the first hieroglyphs of the Rosetta Stone (a fragment of an engraved stele from ancient Egypt). He is considered to be the father of Egyptology.

Léon Gambetta, a child of Cahors, became a member of parliament, then Minister of the Interior and finally Head of Government in 1879. On 4 September 1870, he proclaimed the Third Republic.

Establishment in Figeac of the Ratier factory (manufacture of wooden propellers in aviation) which will see its expansion in the 1930s. Today it is a flagship of aeronautics in France.

During the Second World War, the Lot experienced a resistant activity, like Jacques Chapou, assistant professor of letters at the lycée des garçons de Cahors (now the Gambetta college).

Cahors is the first to declare itself a world citizen city: Cahors Mundi.

The Lot was part of the Midi-Pyrénées region at the time of its creation.

Creation of the Causses du Quercy Regional Natural Park (175,717 hectares, 26,000 inhabitants) in a bid to preserve the local heritage.

Territorial reform of the regions which saw the birth of Occitania in place of the Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon.