BASTIDES
A (condensed) description taken from Wikipedia,
the free internet encyclopedia, and other sources
:
"Bastides are fortified towns built in medieval
France starting around 1229, the date of the
first recorded bastide. All bastides have a
grid layout and a central market square with a
covered weighing and measuring area.
Bastides began to appear as feudalism began to
wane in medieval France, and were an attempt by
landowners to generate revenues from taxes on
trade rather than tithes. Farmers (peasants)
who elected to move their families to bastides
were no longer vassals of the local lord --
they became free men and had their own land;
the deal for the entrepreneur was that he got
to tax the peasants and the trade that the
bastides generated. They were encouraged to
work the land around the Bastide, which in turn
attracted trade in the form of merchants and
markets.
The lord taxed dwellings in the bastides and
all trade in the market. Ease of trading was
the reason for the grid layout and and also for
the covered weighing and measuring area in the
marketplace. Before the bastides were built the
peasants either lived in isolated hamlets
dotted about the countryside, or in houses
clustered around castles or monasteries."
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BRUNIQUEL is one of the many bastide towns in
France and occupies a high position along the
southern edge of the Lot and Quercy region at the
meeting of the Aveyron and Vère
rivers.
The town is dominated by an imposing fortress of
two castles, the older one founded (according to
legend) by Queen Brunehaut (534 - 613), daughter
of the King of the Athanalgilde Visigoths and
wife of King d' Austrasie Sigebert, the grandson
of Clovis. The present two castles are built on
the remains of buildings dating from the 6th
century. Bruniquel was held by the Count of
Toulouse at the end of the ninth century and
remained the property of the House of Toulouse
until the beginning of the 15th century.
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Old streets in the village of Bruniquel
(Left and Below)
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The village was protected by two curtain walls.
In the 15th century prosperous tradesmen and
artisans built some magnificent dwellings in the
village but the religious wars of the ensuing
centuries led to a fall in the village's
prosperity and much of the village fell into
disrepair and houses demolished.
(Left)
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The belfry and clock tower in the old village
(Left)
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The visit to Bruniquel continues on the next
page.
Please click on the 'Next' button (lower
right).
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