Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, la barque aux deux aigles

Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val

The whole town was born of a river legend. Antonin, who brought the Gospel to the Rouergue, is said to have gone back to preach the faith in Pamiers, his native town, where he was martyred around 305: his mutilated body, thrown into the river, is supposed to have travelled upstream in a boat guided by two white eagles, until it came to rest at the confluence of the Aveyron and the Bonnette. Where the boat touched land, tradition places the saint's tomb: an abbey was founded in the 8th century to house his relics — in 763, by Pepin the Short according to some accounts, by Count Festus according to others — and the town that grew up around it took the name of Saint-Antonin. The pilgrimage to the relics made the fortune of the town, a great trading centre whose merchants did business as far afield as Italy and Flanders. What remains is an exceptional medieval setting: the Romanesque house of around 1150, one of the oldest civil buildings in France, the tanners' lanes, and a few remains of the abbey, burned by the Protestants in 1570 after centuries of turmoil — the Albigensian Crusade, the siege by Simon de Montfort in 1212, capture by Louis XIII in 1621. Beneath the cliffs of the Roc d'Anglars, the town that "sailed" here with its saint is best discovered on foot, eyes raised, with the legend in mind.

Getting there : Heart of the village (82140), at the confluence of the Aveyron and the Bonnette. Free access to the lanes and remains; Romanesque house (former court of the viguier, around 1150) on the square; Causses et Gorges de l'Aveyron tourist office on site. Feast of Saint Antonin on 3 September.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound