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Bastide (planned town)Aude

Bastide de Rivel

Rivel

Dimensions
The core of the bastide, girdled by the wide roads that occupy the site of the old dry ditches; the edge houses that served as ramparts; the parish church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste; the medieval chapel of Sainte-Cécile, inscribed as a site in 1952; the town hall and school.
Period
Destruction of Pendels in 1210; fortified bastide built shortly afterwards; medieval chapel of Sainte-Cécile.
What stands there
A bastide born of the Albigensian Crusade after the destruction of Pendels (1210). Chapel of Sainte-Cécile inscribed as a natural site since 1952.

South of Chalabre, in the Kercorb, Rivel takes its name from the stream that runs through it, the Riveillou, from the Latin rivulus. The village developed gradually around a fortified bastide, built shortly after the castle and village of Pendels, higher up, had been destroyed in 1210 during the Albigensian Crusade: the inhabitants driven from the height were gathered together in the valley, in a new town. The bastide had no real ramparts, the houses on the edge of the settlement standing in their place, and it was girdled with dry ditches whose site is occupied today by the wide roads that surround it. The parish church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste and, set apart, the medieval chapel of Sainte-Cécile complete this mountain village at the foot of the forests of the Plantaurel.

Further reading

Getting there : Village with free access; nothing documented about a tourist office or a market.

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

Bastide de Rivel
Lucas Destrem · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

In the same department

All places — Aude (41).