Villeréal

Villeréal

Villeréal, the "royal town", stands in the valley of the Dropt, thirty-five kilometres south of Bergerac, in the north-east of the Agenais, which in the 13th century was only a country of woods, a frontier march of the county of Toulouse. Alphonse of Poitiers, brother of Saint Louis, founded there in 1267, on ground of the forest of Montlabour ceded by Gaston III de Gontaut, lord of Biron, a bastide built in four years on a regular grid set within a square 400 metres on each side. At the centre, the square of 50 metres lined with covered arcades carries a market hall of the 14th century, remade about 1515, whose upper floor of daub served as the consuls' hall; beside it, the church of Notre-Dame, fortified with a crenellated wall-walk, was begun as early as 1267. English during the Hundred Years' War, burned by the Protestants of Bergerac, Villeréal is among Les Plus Beaux Villages de France.

Getting there : Free access to the bastide, to the square and to the market hall. Cœur de Bastides tourist office (coeurdebastides.com) according to the Fédération des Bastides; the market hall housed the official grain measures, but 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