Bastide de Montjoie

Montjoie-en-Couserans

North of Saint-Girons, Montjoie-en-Couserans is a bastide founded in 1268 by Alphonse de Poitiers, a prince of the blood royal, brother of Saint Louis and a great builder, under a paréage contract with the bishop of Couserans. The name, probably from the Germanic mundgawi, "protection of the territory", mistranslated by the Latin mons gaudii, "mount of joy", denotes in Occitan a boundary marker or a commemorative block of stone; another hypothesis sees in it a Mons Jovis linked to an ancient tumulus. The village has kept its fortified church with a bell-gable, Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption, classified as a monument historique since 1901, and a town gate inscribed since 1965, witnesses to an enclosure built to hold the march between the episcopal Couserans and the comital lands. The village archives burned in 1793.

Getting there : Free access to the village, to the gate and to the surroundings of the church.

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

Ambient sound