Bastides of Lomagne

Beaumont de Lomagne
Lavit
Larrazet

A European phenomenon...

Bastides are new towns, deliberately created as a response to the changing social and economic conditions of the period after 1229 in the south west of France.

Bastides had a charter which specified how trade was to be governed and what rights the new citizens could enjoy. The bastide’s founder, the king or his representative - abbé or count, gave land. Legal and economic privileges were granted to the people who built the town and worked there. Their freedom, safety and property ownership was guaranteed. In return, the king could raise taxes and troops in the event of war.

The man generally credited with getting the bastides started was Raymond VIIth, Count of Toulouse who needed to shore up his power base after the ravages of Simon de Montfort and his violent, destructive repression of the Albigensian heresy. On the death of Raymond VII in 1249, Alphonse de Poitiers, the brother of St. Louis, took possession of the County of Toulouse and was a major force in the development of the bastides.  Other notable figures in the history of bastides are Philip the Hard and Philip the Handsome.

IN LOMAGNE TARN ET GARONNAISE …

In the 12th century the Lomagne used to be a very wooded country with lots of little roads.  There were no cities, just some groups of population assembled in hamlets near the first place of the sanctuary or the first feudal towers.

To accommodate people coming to live and work on their lands, lay and religious lords decided to create towns where people could organise and govern themselves (under their supervision).  These towns were called first “Sauvetés”, then “Castelnaux” and then “Bastides”.

In Aquitaine the movement of “Sauvetés” began in the mid XI century, but it is in the 13th century when most of the Bastides were created: St Sardos in 1122, Auvillar in 1135, St Nicolas de la Grave in 1135.  The “Sauvetés” movement could be considered as the beginning of urbanization.

Concerning the “Castelnaux”, in Lomagne we can distinguish the “walled” Castelnaux (Marsac, Le Causé, Esparsac, Lachapelle) and the “opened” Castelnaux (Puygaillard, Asques, Balignac, Mansonville).  We can also discover some “Castelnaux” designed for an urban life (with commerce and crafts) and where population would control administration under the supervision of the Lord (Faudoas, Poupas, Le Causé).

The foundation of Bastides was the last stage of Lomagne urbanization.  The bastides recorded first in a document were Beaumont, Lavit and Larrazet.