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Bastide (planned town)Lot-et-Garonne

Bastide de Miramont-de-Guyenne

Miramont-de-Guyenne

Dimensions
The regular grid, set within an almost perfect square, is read in the four main streets and the lanes which mark it out. The square central place keeps its arcades, the cornières, which sheltered the stalls of the medieval market; the market hall with its upper floor of the communal house has gone. The church of Sainte-Marie, built in 1860, is notable for its windows in the "bleu de Miramont"; away from the village, the church of Saint-Étienne de Beffery, of the 13th century.
Period
Earlier Templar post; bastide founded in 1278; English again in 1318; devastated during the Hundred Years' War; status restored in 1494; church of Sainte-Marie of 1860; shoe industry from the 19th century.
What stands there
A bastide belonging to the Fédération des Bastides d'Aquitaine, noted for the regularity of its plan, set within an almost perfect square. No protection as a monument historique is specified in the texts. The church of Sainte-Marie, restored to prevent its vaults from collapsing, was inaugurated in 1962.

Between Marmande and Bergerac, Miramont-de-Guyenne, formerly Miramont de Lauzun, is an English bastide founded in 1278 by Edward I in paréage with local lords, on the lands of Lauzun, near a former post of refuge or of watch of the Templars. Its plan is of textbook perfection: a grid set within a rectangle of 300 metres by 340, four main streets which meet at the four corners of a central square fifty metres on each side, lined with arcades, the cornières, beneath which the merchants' stalls were set up. French and then English again in 1318, the town was completely devastated during the Hundred Years' War, its inhabitants scattered through the countryside, and in 1494 the king of France, judging it entirely depopulated, had to restore its status as a bastide.

Further reading

Getting there : Free access to the village and to the arcaded square. No tourist office or market 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

Bastide de Miramont-de-Guyenne
MOSSOT · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

In the same department

All places — Lot-et-Garonne (34).