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Bastide (planned town)Gironde

Bastide de Créon

Créon

Dimensions
The place de la Prévôté, a square seventy metres on each side, is lined with four blocks and with arcades on three sides; the market hall that occupied it disappeared in 1872 and the town hall stands on the site of the seat of the royal Grande Prévôté. The church of Notre-Dame, begun in 1316 and completed in 1320, has been altered several times. Of the ditches, the palisade and the four stone gates of the 14th century nothing remains.
Period
Bastide founded in 1315; church 1316-1320; pillaged and burnt in 1337-1338; ditches and palisade after 1342-1351; fortifications destroyed in 1589; market hall gone in 1872.
What stands there
Church of Notre-Dame inscribed as a monument historique in 2002. The chequerboard plan inscribed within a circle, according to the Fédération des Bastides d'Aquitaine, anticipates that of Geaune (1318). The Créon market, ranked seventh market of the Gironde by the Fédération, has existed since 1315. Créon was the first cycling station in France (pilot project launched in 1999).

In the heart of the Entre-deux-Mers, at the crossroads of the routes from Bordeaux to Sauveterre-de-Guyenne and from Libourne to Cadillac, Créon was created in 1315 by Amaury III de Craon, seneschal of Aquitaine for the King of England Edward II, in the midst of the forests. Its very name is that of its founder. The new town was conceived as an economic machine: its weekly market and its six annual fairs came into direct competition with the neighbouring abbey of La Sauve-Majeure, which brought lawsuit after lawsuit against it. Seat until the Revolution of the royal Grande Prévôté of the Entre-deux-Mers, Créon exercised its jurisdiction over forty-eight parishes. The great square of seventy metres, lined with arcades on three sides, still holds the Wednesday market born in 1315; the church of Notre-Dame, built from 1316 to 1320, marks the corner of the chequerboard plan.

Further reading

Getting there : Village and square freely accessible. Market on Wednesday morning under the arcades, and also on Saturday according to the Fédération des Bastides d'Aquitaine. Tourist office of the Créonnais.

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

See it on the map OpenStreetMap Directions

Ambient sound

Bastide de Créon
Jérôme B. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

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In the same department

All places — Gironde (23).