A white coat of churches
The breath of faith has covered villages and towns with stone. Small pre-Romanesque and early Romanesque churches replaced the old Gallo-Roman places of worship. The period of prosperity that brought about the year 1000 with the reigns of the Capetians saw a multitude of buildings spring up in the Pyrenean valleys. In the Hautes-Pyrénées department alone, there are about twenty of them, including those of Aragnouet and Jézeau. Otherwise, Montbrun-Bocage or Valcabrère (Haute-Garonne), Castillon-Couserans or Mérens-les-Vals (Ariège) illustrate magnificently this period. Rectangular in plan, with one or three naves and a semi-circular apse with a semi-circular vault, they are covered with a wooden roof and are accessible through the arch of the porch with two arches above the lintel. Dominated by a bell tower pierced with geminated or square bays, sometimes with an arcaded wall-belfry, their decoration of lésenes (or Lombard bands) in the upper part of the exterior walls allows them to be easily dated
A wind of renewal linked to the organization of pilgrimage routes unfolds during the 11th and 12th centuries, carried by the Benedictine Cluniac order. This was the Second Romanesque Age. Large abbeys welcomed relics and pilgrims. Their churches are vast (from 3 to 5 naves), high with their barrel vaults countered by tribunes (from 18 to 22 meters), adapted to the circulation towards the Holy Bodies. The apse and radiating chapels, the ambulatory and the transept give the building a Latin cross shape. Large cloisters reserved for the monks frame the spiritual gardens. The abbey of Moissac (Tarn-et-Garonne), St-Sernin de Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) are the most beautiful examples. The abbey of Combelongue in Ariège is influenced by the Spanish Mudejar style, which makes it unique in the region. Paintings and sculptures deliver their biblical message. The way is opened to the large historiated portals. The frescoes cover the walls, the capitals and the tympanums are worked by stonemasons whose names sometimes go back centuries, such as Bernard Gilduin in Toulouse (Miègeville door and high altar).
The Cistercian vision brought order to the Roman Church: no more excessive luxury and overloaded decorations. Purity and minimalism are now the order of the day. If the plan of the churches did not change much, on the other hand the chevets became flat. The sculpted decorations are limited to the capitals of the cloisters, favoring plant decorations - water leaves (cistelles) - or woven baskets. No stained glass windows or frescoes. Light above all else. In their ideal, the Cistercians introduced elements of the Gothic style, such as vaults on ribbed crossings. Among the most important: the Abbey of Flaran (Gers), the Abbey of Belleperche or those of Beaulieu en Rouergue (Tarn-et-Garonne) and of L'Escaladieu (Hautes-Pyrénées).
Northern Gothic versus Southern Gothic!
If the first vaults on ribbed crossings appeared in the 12th century in Moissac or in Flaran, it was not until the 13th century that the gothic style was fully developed. We should say gothic! Indeed, two very different styles will emerge in the South of France, as a direct consequence of the crusade against the Cathars and of the French monarchy's hold on the historical Languedoc.
The cathedrals of Mirepoix and Albi, the church of Rabastens present a good synthesis of the characteristics of the Southern Gothic style, also known as Languedoc: brick architecture, single nave, open chapels between the buttresses, absence of transept, quadripartite ribbed vaulting, high narrow windows, polygonal choir with 5 or 7 sides, unadorned portal. Less high than the buildings of the north (28 m at the Jacobins in Toulouse, 30 m in Albi), they have on the other hand a very broad vessel (22 m in Mirepoix, 35 m in Albi) adapted to preaching. The Toulouse bell tower is a must: an octagonal tower topped by a terrace or an arrow. For their part, the mendicant orders, in a concern for poverty, favored more economical roofs: visible frameworks on diaphragm arches.
With the assertion of royal power, from 1271 onwards, the Northern Gothic style, which came from the Île-de-France, spread through the building sites led by the master builder Jean Deschamps, which often remained unfinished due to a lack of financial means (Toulouse, Carcassonne, Rodez...). In 1489, the cathedral of Auch completed the transformation of the main cathedrals of the Toulouse region. Of flamboyant gothic style, it announces the arrival of a new style in fashion, that of the Renaissance.
However, the Gothic style came back in many churches ruined by the wars of religion which rebuilt their vaults identically, during the 17th and 18th centuries (Saint-Jacques de Montauban, Saint-Michel de Gaillac). Very much in vogue in the 19th century, the historicist and regionalist spirit launched the wave of construction of churches in the Southern Gothic style, both in the city and in the countryside.
House in the city, house in the field
If during the Middle Ages, the ways of living are quite similar in all regions of France and Europe, one cannot confuse a house in Foix with those in Lauzerte or Auvillar. The materials of course differentiate them but also the style, the organization or the interior decorations. Many medieval houses have been preserved in Midi-Toulousain and constitute the heritage of exceptional villages.
The urban house combines professional activity and housing. On the first floor, the large arcade and doorway couple express this double function. The workshop and the mezzanine overlook the street, while a corridor leads to a small courtyard and a staircase to reach the first floor, the large aula
room, lit by beautiful geminated windows linked by cords (Cordes-sur-ciel or Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val).The half-timbered houses are the least known and the most difficult to date because this type of construction lasted several centuries (only dendrochronology can help). The timber framing (in the form of a scarf, a Saint Andrew's cross...) structures the building, then the filling is made of various materials. The facades above the street allow to gain space. They are then said to be corbelled (Cologne - Gers, Saint-Lizier - Ariège, Castres - Tarn, Aurignac - Haute-Garonne...).
Practitioner's residences
, often called palaces or private mansions, are rarely the seat of power. The hotel arranged its different buildings around a courtyard, multiplied the living rooms and was embellished with a garden when the palaces imposed themselves in the urban landscape by occupying a whole block, by opening their facade on the street and by dominating the rest of the neighborhood with their tower (Toulouse, Rieux-Volvestre). The taste for painted decorations spread widely in the 13th century. The most frequent motif, which can also be found in churches, is the false stonework, with red lines on a white or yellow background. Numerous geometric patterns are also used. Nevertheless, historiated decorations remain the prerogative of wealthy families: knights, shields, caparison, coats of arms predominate (Tour de Palmata in Gaillac, Cordes-sur-Ciel).In the second half of the 15th century, the economic expansion linked to the international trade of woad, spices, cloths... saw the blossoming of sumptuous hotels and castles
. Merchants invested in parliamentary offices, which were more secure and profitable, or gained access to municipal power, ennobled by their office of consuls such as the Capitouls of Toulouse. The humanist milieu influenced by Italy established the Renaissance. If the hotel on the street derived from the merchant house, the hotel on the courtyard became a palace between courtyard and garden (Hôtel d'Assézat, Boysson-Cheverry, Ulmo - Toulouse). Castles were built on vast agricultural properties: Laréole, Saint-Élix-le-Château, Pibrac (Haute-Garonne), Caumont (Gers).If you dream of living in a castle, there are many in the Midi-Toulousain region and many of them are open to visitors: 29 in Tarn-et-Garonne, 60 in Tarn, 69 in Haute-Garonne, 5 in the Hautes-Pyrénées, 30 in Gers and 24 in Ariège. You will travel in time through all styles and all eras!
In the 19th century, the spa industry
combined cures and pleasure stays. At that time, medicine studied the properties of water. Modern thermal baths were then built: the establishment combined a refreshment room, a bathing cabin and a rest gallery in a monumental architecture bathed in neo-classicism! The Pyrenean marble was used to give these resorts a certain allure. The imperial couple came to Luz-Saint-Sauveur in 1859 for a cure. Luxury hotels and casinos (Luchon), landscaped park (Argelès-Gazost) with kiosk, theaters (Cauterets), railroads... attract a wealthy European clientele. The appearance of the Pyrenees changed with these resort towns where the architecture was eclectic, exotic, decorated with English-style parks and large promenades for the air cure.Except for the coal basins of Carmaux and Decazeville,regional industrialization
is relatively late. It was built on hydraulic power, useful for various fields such as wool, leather, paper, horn or iron (Bazacle in Toulouse, vermicelli factory of the Albigensian Mills, Brusson-jeune flour mill in Villemur-sur-Tarn, Graulhet skin dryer...). As a result of the First World War, many industries were relocated out of reach of the bombings, giving rise to high-tech sectors such as aeronautics. Nevertheless, royal factories (Auterive, Montauban, Lectoure...) or state factories (Poudrerie or Tobacco Factory of Toulouse, Arsenal of Tarbes...) have left an interesting industrial heritage where brick and tile dominate. Moulded decorations adorn the functional architecture, in particular those created by the Virebent brothers' factory in Toulouse. Workers' housing estates and garden cities were added to the places of employment: Fontgrande in St-Benoît-de-Carmaux, Séméac in the Hautes-Pyrénées.Water as an energy source also meant producing electricity for lighting thanks to the waterfalls of old mills. The mountain is exploited for its resources: the Éget power station in Aragnouet, which draws water by underground catchment, is a fine example of a diversion with a waterfall.
