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Bastide (planned town)Ariège

Le Mas-d'Azil

Le Mas-d'Azil

Dimensions
The village keeps the line of the walled town, whose castle was dismantled in 1629 and whose ramparts were razed in 1636. The church, raised in 1673 on the ruins of the former abbey of Saint-Étienne, occupies the heart of the village. On the heights, the dolmen of Cap del Pouech, photographed by Eugène Trutat around 1900, recalls the early occupation of the site, dominated by the cave through which the Arize and the road pass.
Period
Abbey attested in 817, charter and bastide of 1246, ramparts of 1303, siege of 1625, fortifications razed in 1636, church of 1673.
What stands there
A former fortified bastide of the counts of Foix, a stronghold of Ariège Protestantism nicknamed "the Geneva of the county of Foix"; the siege of 1625 set about a thousand defenders against the royal army of Marshal de Thémines. The abbey was suppressed in 1774.

At the mouth of the cave where the Arize cuts through the Plantaurel, Le Mas-d'Azil is a former fortified bastide born around a Benedictine abbey whose first document dates from 817. In 1246 the abbey came to terms with Roger IV, count of Foix, who granted a charter of customs to the community: it was the first of the bastides by which the count secured the west of his domain, before La Bastide-de-Sérou. Protestantism appeared there as early as 1540 and made the village the "Geneva of the county of Foix". In 1568 the monks were driven out and the abbey razed. In 1625 the royal army of Marshal de Thémines besieged the town for a month before withdrawing, leaving nearly five hundred dead. The castle was dismantled in 1629 and the fortifications razed in 1636; the present church dates from 1673.

Further reading

Getting there : Free access to the village. The commune's website (le-mas-dazil.fr) publishes a detailed history.

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

Le Mas-d'Azil
France64160 · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

In the same department

All places — Ariège (25).