Bastide de Monclar

Monclar

Monclar, also called Monclar-d'Agenais, occupies a ridge at 187 metres above sea level, some thirty kilometres north of Agen, between the valleys of the Lot and the Garonne. Alphonse of Poitiers, count of Toulouse and brother of Saint Louis, founded there one of his first bastides: it already exists in 1253 and receives its customs in 1256. The topography imposed the plan of a street-village rather than a grid, around a market square lined with cornières. Under English rule an enclosure with ditches and four gates was planned in December 1283; it disappeared in the 19th century. There remain the houses with corbelling and timber framing, the church of Saint-Clair in the late Gothic style, whose porch is inscribed as a monument historique, and a circuit of wells, one of which is hidden beneath the market hall. The village was a place of passage on the road to Santiago de Compostela.

Getting there : Free access to the village and to the square. The Fédération des Bastides invites visitors to contact the town hall of Monclar for visits and events; no market day or opening times are documented in the texts.

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

Ambient sound