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, such as the
walled city
of Aigues Mortes, on the edge of the
Camargue, the medieval
port from which Crusaders set forth (photo left). 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),
Gard:
Aigues Mortes
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; centre, the
main square at Villefranche de Rouergue, a bastide that became an
important local town. Below, Aigues Mortes
