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Bastide (planned town)Gironde

Bastide de Sauveterre-de-Guyenne

Sauveterre-de-Guyenne

Dimensions
The regular plan is laid out around the place de la République, a square surrounded by arcades where the town hall and the tourist information office stand. At the four corners of the urban rectangle stand the porte Saubotte to the north-west, the porte de la Font to the south-west, the porte Saint-Romain to the south-east and the porte Saint-Léger to the north-east, the only survivors of the enclosure dismantled in 1838. The church of Notre-Dame, of the 14th century, keeps a remarkable apse.
Period
Bastide founded in 1281, privileges in 1283; church of Notre-Dame 14th century; ten changes of side until 1451; ramparts dismantled in 1838.
What stands there
Apse of the church of Notre-Dame classified as a monument historique since 1920. The only bastide in the Gironde to have kept its four gates, according to the Fédération des Bastides d'Aquitaine. Unofficially called Sauveterre-en-Bazadais, the commune became Sauveterre-de-Guyenne in 1896. A member of the Fédération des Bastides d'Aquitaine.

In the centre of the Entre-deux-Mers, Sauveterre-de-Guyenne is the only bastide in the Gironde to have kept its four gates. The King of England Edward I, Duke of Aquitaine, accepted its creation in 1281, it seems in order to put an end to the seigneurial rivalries of the area, and granted it its privileges in 1283; its Occitan name of safe land denotes a place of asylum. Its position at the crossroads of the Bazadais and the Libournais led to its being disputed throughout the Hundred Years' War: the bastide changed sides ten times before becoming definitively French in 1451. The walls were dismantled in 1838, but the Saubotte, Font, Saint-Romain and Saint-Léger gates still frame a regular plan of which the place de la République, square and surrounded by arcades, forms the heart. The church of Notre-Dame, of the 14th century, is distinguished by its classified apse.

Further reading

Getting there : Village, square and gates freely accessible. Market on Tuesday morning on the square. Tourist information office on the square; tourist office of the Entre-deux-Mers.

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 Sauveterre-de-Guyenne
Jack ma · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

This place in the great stories

In the same department

All places — Gironde (23).