At the turn of the year 1000
During the High Middle Ages, many mottes castrales were built on voluminous and circular earthen embankments, the mounds. Surrounded by ditches, the summit is reinforced by a wooden palisade protecting a fort dominated by a keep. The lord built his political power on the mound which became a major element of the spatial organization around the year 1000. In the 11th century, feudalism developed this system, which was to become much more extensive during the following century, giving rise to the Castelnaus or castèlnòu - an Occitan word which literally means "new castle". It designates a castral village - founded in Gascony and Languedoc - born of the manifest will to regroup around a fortress populations that had been scattered until then, living under the protection of a lord in exchange for chores and agricultural work. These villages have several types of plans: circular as in Fourcès (Gers), village-street stretched on a promontory as in Biran (Gers), village in concentric arcs of circle stepped in terraces and dominated by the castle as in Lauzerte (Tarn-et-Garonne). Their intention was to counter the expansion of the Sauvetés.
The French equivalent of Castelnau is Châteauneuf. It is at the origin of many toponyms : Castelnau-Rivière-Basse (Hautes-Pyrénées), Castelnau-Durban (Ariège), Castelnau-de-Brassac or Castelnau-de-Lévis, (Tarn), Castelnau-d'Estrétefonds (Haute-Garonne). The most numerous are located in the Gers: Castelnau-Barbarens, Castelnau-d'Anglès, Castelnau-d'Arbieu, Castelnau-d'Auzan, Castelnau-sur-l'Auvignon. As well as certain surnames, such as those of Francis de Laporte de Castelnau, French explorer and naturalist (1810-1880) or of Joseph de Curières de Castelnau, French politician (1879-1943).
Under the protection of God
The Sauvetés had first of all a colonizing and land reclamation function, but they also served as welcome stops for pilgrims walking towards Compostela. They are a frank place where the immunity of the individual is respected. This place of asylum was placed under the control of an abbey, a monastery or a priory from the beginning of the 11th century, which is why the monks multiplied the sacred enclosures materialized by stone markers called "pyramids or markers of salvation" as in Saint-Girons (Ariège) and surmounted by crosses (Léguevin - Haute-Garonne). This favored the emergence of numerous villages that attracted wanderers but especially peasants seeking refuge from the violence of feudal wars. Little by little, they were to embody the permanence of the Truce of God because the Catholic Church struck down with anathema those who did not respect it. The territory of the Sauveté was divided into casaus (building enclosures with gardens) and plowable land distributed to the settlers(poblants) who were offered liberties(libertas) and protection for their property and person.
In Gascony, an inventory shows that their creation is spread out from 1027 to 1141. Saint-Pé-de-Bigorre (Hautes-Pyrénées), Léguevin and La Salvetat-Saint-Gilles (Haute-Garonne), Nogaro (Gers) or Saint-Nicolas-de-la-Grave (Tarn-et-Garonne) attest their importance
Free cities and land use planning
The Bastides phenomenon has its roots in the conflicts that have marked the history of the great Southwest. On the one hand, the crusade against the Cathars pitted the Languedoc lords against the French crusaders; on the other hand, the Hundred Years' War saw English and French troops clash. The populations suffered from these wars which followed one another and never ended. The foundation of new towns became a way to win the loyalty of the population and to feed the treasury with the economic boom and the taxes linked to commercial exchanges. More than 500 cities were created. Some of them have disappeared while others have become county towns. Their names evoke their status: Villeneuve, Villefranche or Labastide; the patronage of a prestigious city: Granada, Barcelona, Pavia... or the name of the founder - a king (Montreal, Réalmont) or his seneschal (Montcabrier, Beaumarchès).
A model plan developed: open towns, regular orthogonal layout in a checkerboard pattern, a central square with a covered area, a market hall, and a nearby church in the southern Gothic style. Sometimes, for strategic reasons, the ramparts grow at the same time as the houses.
A contract of parétage is at the origin of their existence. It is an agreement between a landowner and the political authority. Often vast abbeys that associate themselves with a lord. Alphonse de Poitiers, brother of Saint Louis, was one of the most important promoters of new towns. Charters of franchises and customs were granted to the inhabitants, a civil code codifying the rules of community life and tax benefits. The market hall symbolizes the identity of a bastide, some are exceptional (Cologne, Grenade-sur-Garonne, Revel) for their wooden frames. They are home to the belfry and the first council room of the city as well as the weights and measures allowing for trade.
A little stroll?
In the Gers, the road of the Bastides and Castelnaux: a winding road with a camel's back crosses the hills of the Astarac to the Country of d'Artagnan. About fifty kilometers to discover Marciac (royal bastide) and its square (the largest in the Midi-Pyrénées); Barran (bastide) - and its helicoidal bell tower, rare in the region; L'Isle de Noé, situated between two Baïses (the large and the small one); Montesquiou (Castelnau); Bassoues - Bastide of the XIIIth century, founded on an ancient druidic site. Superb market hall and keep built in 1369 ; Beaumarchès (royal bastide) founded in 1290 ; Plaisance, the city with two bastides : Square corner tower - Remains of the ramparts.
Another itinerary between Gers and Tarn-et-Garonne, the tourist route "of the fortified bastides and villages of the Lomagne" passing by Beaumont-de-Lomagne, its immense 14th century market hall and its fortified church; Saint-Clar, an ecclesiastical perimeter and two castles - of the bishop and of the lord in the oldest part, the "Castet Bielh"; Gramont built on a rocky spur and its castle enlarged during the Renaissance; L'Isle-Bouzon - castelnau built on a limestone cliff; Lectoure - main residence of the Counts of Armagnac in the Middle Ages and former bishop's palace set on its rocky promontory; Fleurance (Bastide) and its church with its magnificent Renaissance stained glass windows by the artist Arnaud de Moles
