Bastide de Gaillac-Toulza

Gaillac-Toulza

Gaillac-Toulza, on the hills south of Toulouse, was born of the Cistercian abbey of Calers, a daughter of Grandselve, which built the village in the 12th century. Destroyed during the Albigensian war, the village was rebuilt as a bastide: in 1270 Abbot Bernard de Bosco ceded half the territory to Count Alphonse of Poitiers and Countess Jeanne, on condition that a bastide or town be built there, and the bastide of Gaillac appears in the texts in 1277, when the Count of Foix demanded its restitution from the king. Destroyed again in the 16th century during the Wars of Religion, the commune took under the Revolution the name of Gaillac-la-Montagne. The church of Saint-Étienne, of the 12th century, keeps its Gothic doorway, an 18th-century bell-gable and a classified organ of 1848; the holy fountain of Saint-Julien, laid out in 1812, remains a place of pilgrimage and procession. The family of the composer Gabriel Fauré comes from the village.

Getting there : Free access to the village and to the fountain of Saint-Julien; pilgrimage and procession documented without a date specified. No market documented.

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

Ambient sound