Hauts LieuxChapels, sanctuaries & legends

Hauts Lieux›All places›Lot-et-Garonne

Bastide (planned town)Lot-et-Garonne

Castillonnès

Castillonnès

Dimensions
The plan of parallel streets is arranged around a central square with cornières, whose arcades have served as a setting for several films; the main street curves as it follows the ridge. Of the medieval fortification fine remains survive, among them posterns of the 14th century. The church of Saint-Pierre, begun as early as 1259 and then rebuilt, houses an altarpiece of the 17th century brought from the cathedral of Agen. The hôtel de Cours de Thomazeau, about 1770, and the market hall of 1905 complete the ensemble.
Period
Lands of the abbey of Cadouin about 1150; paréage of 10 September 1259; fortification by Edward II in 1312-1315; charters renewed from 1372 to 1483; church rebuilt after the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of Religion; hôtel de Cours de Thomazeau about 1770.
What stands there
A bastide belonging to the Fédération des Bastides d'Aquitaine. The hôtel de Cours de Thomazeau has been inscribed as a monument historique since 1996; the altarpiece of the 17th century in the church of Saint-Pierre has been classified as an object since 1959. The commune of Celles-et-Roquadet-Paroixe was annexed to it in 1806.

Perched on a ridge between the Douyne and the Dropt, on the borders of the Agenais and the Périgord, Castillonnès is one of the great bastides of Alphonse of Poitiers. The site had belonged to the abbey of Cadouin since a knight of the Mons family bequeathed it to the abbey about 1150; on 10 September 1259 Abbot Élie, the Mons brothers and the seneschal of the Agenais signed the paréage which created the town, endowed with customs on the model of Monflanquin. The seat of a bailiwick from 1269, fortified by Edward II between 1312 and 1315, the bastide changed hands seven times during the Hundred Years' War and underwent five assaults during the Wars of Religion. Its place des Cornières, its parallel streets which follow the curve of the ridge, its posterns of the 14th century and the hôtel de Cours de Thomazeau make it a major stopping-place on the road of the bastides of the Haut-Agenais.

Further reading

Getting there : Free access to the village. Weekly market on Tuesday according to the Fédération des Bastides d'Aquitaine; no opening times of a tourist office documented in the texts.

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

Castillonnès
Jacques MOSSOT · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

This place in the great stories

In the same department

All places — Lot-et-Garonne (34).