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Bastide (planned town)Aveyron

Najac

Najac

Dimensions
The 13th-century royal fortress and the remains of the first castle with its second enclosure; the church of Saint-Jean, Gothic with a single nave; the public fountain of 1350, an octagonal basin hollowed from a single monolith of granite; the Governor's house (13th and 15th centuries); the Seneschal's house; the town gate; the bridge of Saint-Blaise; the village's single street and the place du Barry.
Period
Comital castrum; repression of 1252; royal fortress of 1255; church 1253-1269; royal castellany in 1271; fountain of 1350.
What stands there
Six buildings protected as monuments historiques: the fountain (1910), the church (1924), the castle (1925), the gate (1928), the Seneschal's house (1979), the bridge (1987). Najac is one of the Plus Beaux Villages de France and counts among the five bastides of Rouergue.

On a spur enclosed by a loop of the Aveyron, Najac lines up its single street between the place du Barry and the fortress that closes the horizon. An old castrum of the counts of Toulouse, the village is counted among the five bastides of Rouergue: Alphonse de Poitiers, having become count, imposed his authority there after the revolt of 1252, put down by the seneschal Jean d'Arcis, who had the consul Hugues Paraire executed, and under cover of the struggle against the Cathar heresy the Inquisition struck the people of Najac. In 1255 the count began the rebuilding of the castle to make it a royal fortress, in 1260 the bridge of Saint-Blaise, while the church of Saint-Jean, Gothic with a single nave, was raised from 1253 to 1269 on confiscated property. A royal castellany in 1271, a prison for the Templars of Rouergue in 1307, Najac is today one of the Plus Beaux Villages de France.

Further reading

Getting there : Village with free access; the fortress has a paid visit; tourist office in the village. Votive fête of Saint Bartholomew and of the fouace on the second-to-last weekend of August.

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

Najac
Dumas Roger · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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In the same department

All places — Aveyron (20).