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Bastide (planned town)Haute-Garonne

Bastide de Montgeard

Montgeard

Dimensions
The orthogonal layout of the bastide can still be made out at the top of the hill, beyond the former ditches. The church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption, of southern Gothic, is distinguished by an unfinished porch tower unique in the Lauragais. The château de Montgeard, or hôtel Durand, of the early 16th century, bears witness to the fortune of the woad merchants. The château de Roquefoulet, of the early 19th century, is one of the last of the wheat châteaux.
Period
14th century (paréage 1317, customs 1318); heyday of woad 1453-1562; church 1522-1561; grain market hall 1763.
What stands there
The church has been classified as a monument historique since 1980; the château de Montgeard, inscribed in 1992, was classified in 1995; the château de Roquefoulet has been inscribed since 2001. The village numbered 555 inhabitants in 2022.

On a hill of the Lauragais, some thirty kilometres south-east of Toulouse, Montgeard is a royal bastide born of a paréage signed on 22 December 1317 between Hugues Peytavin, lord of Nailloux, and Guy Guiard, seneschal of Toulouse for King Philip V. The seneschal left it his name: Mont-Guiard, which became Montgeard. Laid out in the forest of Artiz beside a church dedicated to Notre-Dame des Cabanes, the new town received in 1318 a charter of fifty articles. It had its great hour between 1453 and 1562, when woad enriched the Faget, Ganac, Caussidières and Durand families: the church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption, raised from 1522 to 1561, and the château of the Durands still bear the trace of it. Wheat then took over, with a grain market hall built in 1763.

Further reading

Getting there : Free access to the village. The lake of La Thésauque, a leisure centre, extends across Montgeard and Nailloux.

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 Montgeard
Mimi81 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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In the same department

All places — Haute-Garonne (42).