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Bastide (planned town)Ariège

Mirepoix

Mirepoix

Dimensions
The central square is surrounded by 15th-century covered arcades carried on wooden pillars; to the west of the Grand Couvert, a shield bears the date 1573. The consuls' house, of the 15th century, shows a façade beam of nearly twelve metres and a hundred and four carvings at the ends of the beams and on the pillars. The cathedral of Saint-Maurice dates from the 15th century, the bishop's palace from the 15th (Philippe de Lévis) and the 18th (Jean Boyer). The bridge over the Hers was designed in 1776 by Perronet.
Period
A Cathar town taken in 1209, destroyed by the flood of 1289, rebuilt on a chequerboard plan; covered arcades of the 15th century; a bishopric until 1801.
What stands there
A town with covered arcades in the pays d'Olmes, the seat of a bishopric until 1801; the château de Mirepoix, recorded in 960 and called Terride in the 18th century, has been classified as a monument historique since 1875. Birthplace of Marshal Clauzel and of the astronomer Jean-Joseph Vidal.

Mirepoix, "the place from which one watches the fish" in Occitan, is the best known of the towns with covered arcades in the Ariège. Won over to Catharism at the end of the 12th century, it hosted in 1206 a council of six hundred Cathars, before being taken in September 1209 by Simon de Montfort, who gave it to his lieutenant Guy de Lévis, the stock of the Lévis-Mirepoix. In 1289 a flood of the Hers caused by the bursting of the rock barrier of the lake of Puivert swept away the town and more than a thousand inhabitants. Rebuilt at once on the other bank, on a terrace ceded by Guy III de Lévis, it adopted the chequerboard plan of the bastides: Wikipedia specifies that it is not strictly speaking a bastide, but an old town rebuilt on the plans typical of the bastides. Covered arcades of the 15th century, the consuls' house and the cathedral make it a major medieval ensemble.

Further reading

Getting there : Free access to the square and the covered arcades; the cathedral and the surroundings of the bishop's palace freely visible.

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

Mirepoix
Camille Vandoorsselaere · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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In the same department

All places — Ariège (25).