Bastide de Grenade

Grenade

Grenade is the great bastide of the north of Toulouse, founded in 1290 on the initiative of the Cistercian monks of Grandselve, in paréage with the seneschal Eustache de Beaumarchais, representative of King Philip the Fair. Its name, Granada, spoke of the ambition to make it an influential town of the South-West: the plan provided for three thousand dwellings, a thousand were built. The chequerboard of streets is laid out around an exceptional wooden market hall, the largest and the oldest market hall in France according to Wikipedia, square and forty-one metres on each side on thirty-six octagonal piers, whose timbers have been dated to 1293 and which has been classified since 1979. The church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption, Languedoc Gothic of the 13th-15th centuries with an octagonal Toulouse bell-tower, has been classified since 1951; the 14th-century bridge over the Save and the Ursuline convent (1626) complete one of the most complete bastide ensembles in the Haute-Garonne.

Getting there : Free access to the bastide, to the market hall and to the surroundings of the church; the Ursuline convent has been under restoration since 1965. Market not documented in the texts.

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

Ambient sound