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Bastide (planned town)Gers

Bastide de Gimont

Gimont

Dimensions
The 14th-century market hall, straddling the main street, is the emblematic monument of the town. The church of Notre-Dame, the only survivor of the bastide's three churches, bears the date 1331 on its façade. A 14th-century house with covered arcades at the corner of the rue Nationale and the rue de l'Arceau. The chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Cahuzac, lined with ex-votos. Of the abbey of Planselve there remain a brick enclosure wall a kilometre and a half long, a monumental 14th-century gateway, the lay brothers' building and two dovecotes.
Period
Abbey of Planselve founded in 1142; 13th-century bastide, customs of 1274 confirmed in 1280; church dated 1331; 14th-century market hall; consulate until the Revolution.
What stands there
Church of Notre-Dame inscribed as a monument historique in 1939; market hall inscribed in 1978; 14th-century house inscribed in 1960; chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Cahuzac inscribed in 2017; château de Fontenilles inscribed in 1999. The abbey of Planselve is a private estate. A stage on the via Tolosana towards Compostela.

Gimont stretches along a rise overlooking the Gimone, east of Auch, on the via Tolosana of the pilgrimage to Santiago. The bastide was born of a paréage between the abbot of Planselve, a Cistercian abbey founded in 1142 by Géraud du Brouilh, and the seneschal of Alphonse of Poitiers, brother of St Louis and Count of Toulouse; at first called Francheville, it was built at the expense of the count and countess in the parish of Saint-Justin, very close to the abbey, and received its customs in 1274. Its 14th-century market hall straddles the main street, and the church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption bears the date 1331 carved on its façade. The chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Cahuzac, one of the oldest pilgrimages in Gascony, is lined with ex-votos, and the brick enclosure wall of Planselve, a kilometre and a half long, still runs through the countryside.

Further reading

Getting there : Free access to the village, to the market hall and to the surroundings of the church. The abbey of Planselve is private property. Tourist office and market not documented in the texts.

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 Gimont
Havang(nl) · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

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All places — Gers (34).