Bastide d'Alan

Alan

Alan is a fortified village of the Comminges, some twenty kilometres from Saint-Gaudens, which was the residence of the bishops of Comminges until the Revolution. An ecclesiastical sauveté existed there from the 11th century; about 1270-1272 it was reshaped into a bastide by the seneschal Eustache de Beaumarchais, in paréage between King Philip III the Bold and Bishop Bertrand de Miramont, who then gave customs to the inhabitants. The village keeps its episcopal palace, whose octagonal tower with a spiral staircase and whose tympanum carved with a monumental cow, a work of the end of the 15th century for Bishop Jean de Foix, have made the fame of the place. The church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Nativité, the hospital of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette founded in 1735 around a 12th-century chapel and the chapel of Notre-Dame de Saint-Bernard, raised in 1688 after Marian apparitions, complete an ensemble rare for a village of fewer than three hundred inhabitants.

Getting there : Free access to the village and to the surroundings of the palace; visits to the palace depend on its private owners. No market documented.

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

Ambient sound