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Bastide (planned town)Lot-et-Garonne

Bastide de Vianne

Vianne

Dimensions
An almost complete enclosure of 1,250 metres, with its four fortified gates with square towers and two round corner towers; inside, the grid plan and the square 50 metres on each side; the fortified church of Saint-Christophe, of the 12th century, with its historiated capitals, and the niche tombs of the 12th century in its cemetery; the ruins of the water mill of 1287, the canal bridge over the Baïse and, nearby, the priory of Calezun and the châteaux of La Roche and of Naudet.
Period
Roman villa and priory; bastide built from 1284 to 1287; enclosure of the 14th century; siege of 1295; changes of side from 1337 to 1442; fortification works in 1613, 1619 and 1651; canal bridge of 1839-1853.
What stands there
The church of Saint-Christophe has been classified as a monument historique since 1889; the bastide and the enclosure of Vianne, with its four gates and almost all of its walls, are among the monuments of the commune. Vianne belongs to the Fédération des Bastides d'Aquitaine; the pierre de Vianne obtained a geographical indication in 2024.

Vianne, on the left bank of the Baïse twenty-five kilometres west of Agen, is one of the few bastides whose enclosure is almost entire. A hamlet had formed on the ruins of a Roman villa and a priory had been raised there by a military order when, by a deed of paréage between Jourdain de l'Isle and the seneschal of Guyenne Jean de Grailly, for Edward I of England, the new town was built from 1284 to 1287 and named after Vianne de Gontaut-Biron. The grid is set within a rectangle of 350 metres by 250 around a square 50 metres on each side; a wall of 1,250 metres, four gates with square towers and round corner towers still enclose it. Besieged as early as 1295, disputed between French and Aquitanians from 1337 to 1442, Vianne also keeps its fortified church of Saint-Christophe, of the 12th century.

Further reading

Getting there : Free access to the bastide, to its gates and to the walk round the ramparts. Market on Friday morning in summer and evening market on Friday according to the Fédération des Bastides; Albret Tourisme tourist office (albret-tourisme.com). No opening times are documented.

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 Vianne
MOSSOT · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

In the same department

All places — Lot-et-Garonne (34).