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Bastide (planned town)Ariège

Bastide de Villefranche (Saint-Girons)

Saint-Girons

Dimensions
The old bridge over the Salat, in the town centre, links the old town to the former bastide of Villefranche. The castle of the viscounts of Couserans, inscribed in 1988, houses the media centre; the church of Saint-Valier, inscribed in 2005, keeps a 12th-century doorway classified in 1925 and a 12th-century sarcophagus; the church of Saint-Girons, rebuilt in 1857, keeps a 14th-century bell-tower and a classified Cavaillé-Coll organ. The Champ de Mars and its plane trees, opened in 1784, form an inscribed site.
Period
Town around 1100; bastide of Villefranche around 1256; Protestant capture of 1576; fire of 1721; ramparts levelled in 1784.
What stands there
A sub-prefecture and the capital of the Couserans, whose suburb of Villefranche is a bastide of Alphonse de Poitiers; the viscounts' castle inscribed in 1988, the doorway of Saint-Valier classified in 1925, the Champ de Mars an inscribed site since 1947, the 18th-century maison Dufaur inscribed. A hoard of 13,000 coins of the 3rd century was found there in 1994.

Saint-Girons, capital of the Couserans, is a double town. The old town, which appeared around 1100 at the foot of Saint-Lizier, the ancient Lugdunum Consoranorum and seat of the bishopric, spreads along the right bank of the Salat around the viscounts' castle and the church of Saint-Valier with its 12th-century doorway. Facing it, on the left bank, the suburb of Villefranche is a bastide created most likely in 1256 by a paréage contract between Alphonse de Poitiers, a prince of the blood royal, brother of Saint Louis and a great builder, and the bishop of Couserans, twelve years before Montjoie, founded by the same men. The old bridge links the two towns. A Catholic stronghold in a largely Protestant country, Saint-Girons was taken in 1576 by Jean-Claude de Lévis, baron d'Audou, the governor designated by the Protestants; a fire ravaged it on 16 and 17 December 1721, and its ramparts were levelled in 1784.

Further reading

Getting there : Free access to the town centre, to the old bridge and to the Champ de Mars; the viscounts' castle houses the library and media centre.

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

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In the same department

All places — Ariège (25).