History History

Several excavation campaigns have made it possible to determine that human occupation of the territory began 500,000 years ago, at the confluence of the Agout and Tarn rivers. It is here, between the rocky stigmata of a turbulent geological past and the dense forests, that the first Neanderthal hunters settled. The caves, on both sides of the territory, became shelters and then, with the hazards of history, real hiding places. Menhirs, dolmens and statues were erected during the Neolithic period in the lush forests of Grésigne, as in the heart of the Lacaune mountains. Some of these treasures are still visible today in the heart of the Tarn countryside.

The whole region is adorned with oppidums, these high perched sites that still sit between heaven and earth today. This period was marked by many tensions. Near Castres, in the south of the department, the necropolis of Gourjade, with its 400 tombs, remains a powerful testimony of these conflicting times. From one bank of the Agout to the other, the Volcans and the Rutens hated each other. Nero's father, Cneius Domitius Ahenobarbus, found a simple solution to these disputes that were damaging the pax romana: he dismissed them all and established on the site a Roman castrum marking the northern limit of the province of Narbo Martius (ancient name of the city of Narbonne).

During this period, the Visigoths settled around Toulouse, marking the place names with characteristic "-ingus", then "-ens" endings. Thus, in the Tarn, we find Rabastens, Mézens, Giroussens, Brens, and many others. The Alans, originally from the Caucasus, or the Suevi from Germania briefly occupied these regions. Hordes of Saracens also crossed the territory towards the west. The Normans, under the boot of Pepin I, launched against Charles the Bald, put the country to fire and blood before moving away on the river Tarn. But those who left an indelible mark on the region came from the East. Relatives of the Bogomils, a sect of Bulgarian origin which professes that the material world was created by the devil and rejects the authority of the Church, they came to preach Catharism.

The century was marked by Catharism. The doctrine spread in prosperous regions where the clergy, local lords and merchants competed for wealth, i.e. mainly in northern Italy and southern France. It was a vehicle for local tensions. The heretics said that the Holy Spirit and Satan shared the human being and that one had to respect the rules of their strict religion or accept to die so that the soul could finally find the path to perfection. Much less greedy and intrusive than the ultramontane high clergy, they were tolerated because they were poor and challenged the dissolute papists. The counts of Toulouse, welcoming the refugees from Italy, were less seduced by the ideology than by the political dimension of the movement, proud to have a religion of their own in Occitania.

This was a turbulent period, punctuated by murderous crusades, trials by the Inquisition and castles taken as booty. The undisputed leader of the crusade against the Albigensians, Simon de Montfort, found it an opportunity to build a fiefdom to match his ambitions. The Tarn was thus ransacked, raped, violated; the countryside suffered as much as the cities, the fire took everywhere, until the pyre of Lavaur, the most devastating of all the Albigensian crusade. Four hundred heretics perished there! Pillage and destruction continued until 1217. Simon de Montfort then decided to besiege Toulouse, which had had the audacity to revolt. He died during this attack, killed by stone-throwing. Besides the crusades, the 13th century was also the time of the bastides. About forty new towns appeared: Cordes in 1222, then Lisle-sur-Tarn, Réalmont and Pampelonne.

This period represents one of the darkest hours of the territory. During the 14th century, armour clashes again in rivalries over territory and property. These conflicts take place while misery affects all the lands and machinations are carried out in the greatest secrecy. Promises were betrayed, the currency suffered severe devaluations, and the century was plagued by a disturbing wave of tumult. From 1302 to 1347, famines followed one another at a tragic rate and, as if by relentlessness, the Black Death fell in 1348 on those who had miraculously remained alive: the future department of the Tarn lost more than half its population.

At that time, there was a renaissance of arts and letters everywhere, and this is one of the reasons why religious dogmas were then questioned, in a region still hostile to the political centralism of Paris as well as the spiritual centralism of Rome. This was the beginning of the Wars of Religion. This conflict, which took up certain aspects of the Albigensian crusade, allowed the great families to confront each other once again under religious pretexts, always with the aim of promoting their political and economic interests and increasing their power. The Tarn was then split in two: the Catholic Albigeois against the Protestant Castrais. In the four corners of the department, cruelties multiplied. Hills, plains and villages were soon nothing but ruins, parts of history completely annihilated by barbarism. Finally, Albi remained Catholic while Castres and the south of the department joined the Reformation. At the end of the 17th century, it is necessary to think of rebuilding everything.

In 1752, under the direction of the Chevalier de Solages, the coal of Carmaux began to be exploited, and then the construction of the road network began: from Castres to Saint-Pons and Toulouse, from Toulouse to Rodez via Albi... Time passed and little by little the wounds closed. And, on the still smouldering remains of this vast battlefield, a country is rebuilt. Once again, we must think of the future, promise to forget our differences. But the end of the troubles marked the beginning of a new rivalry between Albi and Castres. The department, created in 1790, quickly displayed its political disparities: the North, more working class with its coal mines and industry, was sensitive to socialist ideas, while the South, more agricultural, was more conservative. In the industrial sector, the Carmausin and Albigeois regions developed coal and iron and steel industries respectively, while the Castres and Mazamet regions turned to textiles and delainage.

During this period, the Tarn was marked by social struggles and by one of its children, Jean Jaurès. Fervent activist, we owe to this Tarn native a law on work accidents and the first pensions for farmers. The 20th century was synonymous with world conflicts. During the First World War, the department was not spared; there were more than 10,000 deaths. As for the years 1939-1945, they were years of active resistance. On 16 August 1944, the Resistance took Carmaux. In Castres, a small group of about 200 Resistance fighters, armed with simple machine guns, even managed to capture 42,000 German soldiers!