The "Bastide" towns of
southwest France are a growing
tourist attraction, and comprise one of the largest collections of
well-preserved mediaeval townscapes to be found anywhere in
Europe. Obviously, the built environment of the more
important
bastides has been significantly modified since mediaeval times, but in
many of the more rurally sited bastides, the layout of streets and
buildings has remained virtually unchanged for over six centuries, if
not longer, and many of today's buildings have walls, if not much more,
that date back to the early days of the town.
There are said to be some 500-700
bastides in France, depending on how wide the definition is extended.
Most of these are the southwest, and the majority of them were built in
the
two centuries from 1200 to 1400. At the time, the southwest of France
was a frontier region, belonging partly to France, and partly to the
kings of England. It should be
remembered that until the mid fifteenth century, when the "English"
were to all intents and purposes driven out of France, the kings of
England, French-speaking, were actually Angevins, one of the four great
French dynasties, who had moved their power base from Angers (in the
Loire valley) to England, but still had large possessions in France,
notably Aquitaine.
The large number of bastides in the
southwest of
France were set up in order to establish a more modern society in what
was, at the time, a rather wild and inhospitable part of Europe. The
establishment of bastides was a way for rulers to bring the population
together in centres which could be more easily controlled and defended
than isolated farmsteads or hovels, while helping to develop trade and
other activities associated with the town. The bastides, by promoting
economic activity, also allowed the lords who founded them to raise
more taxes, while ensuring a better standard of living - and also more
importantly the status of freemen rather than serfs - for the people
who moved into them.
Since
they were built at a time of relative peace and prosperity, before the
start of the Hundred Years' War, the early bastides were not fortified;
however once Anglo-French relations deteriorated into a state of on-off
conflict, many bastides were fortified either on the initiative of
individual occupants, who built walls at the outer end of their
properties, or by the coordinated building of town walls.
It is sometimes said that
bastides were established in a fairly arbitrary manner, often on
greenfield sites; but in actual fact, most were set up on the sites of
existing villages or at the intersections of routes. It seems unlikely
that any bastides were built in areas where nothing existed before; in
a sense they were "new towns", but their rationale was very different
from that which inspired the new towns of the twentieth century in
Britain, France or other counties. They were built in order to put some
order into society, not to accommodate a rapidly growing population.
They are not all built on hills, as is sometimes written.
Most
bastides are laid out on a
grid pattern, with a central square; while the grid pattern may
have been inspired by the model of the roman "castrum", of
which
there were plenty of examples in the south of France, the idea of the
central square may actually have come from the Islamic world, either
via the crusaders or via moorish Spain. As likely as not,
there is
some truth in all these theories. The central square of a
bastide is generally surrounded by arcades; the central square served
as the commercial hub and market place, and was sometimes equipped with
a covered market hall. The main roads in the grid are knowns as
carreyras, or carriage ways, since they are wide enough for carts.
The main
bastide area covers most of Aquitaine and a part of the Midi
Pyrénées regions of France, stretching from the
Dordogne to the Aveyron, and down to the Spanish border. The largest
concentration of bastides is in the Lot et Garonne department (47),
along what was the shifting boderline between the English and the
French held lands.
Among the more famous, best preserved or most attractive bastides are:
Dordogne:
Domme (24), Eymet (24), Monpazier (24), Villefranche du
Périgord (24),
Lot:
Rudelle (46),
Lot et
Garonne: Montflanquin (47), Montpezat (47),
Villeréal (47), Vianne (47), Puymirol (47),
Aveyron:
Sauveterre de Rouergue (12), Villeneuve d'Aveyron (12), Villefranche de
Rouergue (12),
Ariège:
Mirepoix (09),
Landes:
Labastide d'Armagnac (40),
Pyrénées
Atlantiques: Navarrenx (64),
Haute
Garonne: Villefranche-de-Lauragais (31),
Gers:
Cologne (32).
Tarn:
Cordes sur Ciel (81)
Photos: top Villeneuve d'Aveyron, a small tranquil bastide; below the
main square at Villefranche de Rouergue, a bastide that became an
important local town.
