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Bastide (planned town)Lot

Montfaucon

Montfaucon

Dimensions
An orthogonal plan of parallel streets cut by carreyrous, which survives in full; the church of Saint-Barthélemy of the 14th and 15th centuries, classified as a monument historique in 1936, with three Baroque altarpieces from the Tournié workshop; the chapel and its statue of Notre-Dame de Montfaucon of the 16th century; the pond and the wash-house fed by the Céou, which rises immediately nearby; the buildings of the former junior seminary on the site of the fort. The square with covered arcades is missing.
Period
English bastide established about 1292-1293; Hundred Years' War until 1439; Wars of Religion 1572-1588; church of the 14th and 15th centuries; junior seminary 1815-1906.
What stands there
The church of Saint-Barthélemy has been classified as a monument historique since 1936. Montfaucon was the chef-lieu of a canton of the district of Gourdon under the Revolution, until 1802, and the seat of more than two thousand consuls over five centuries.

On a promontory overlooking the causse and the Bouriane, at the source of the Céou, Montfaucon is an English bastide of the Quercy. After the arrangement of 1286 between Philip the Fair and Edward I, the king of England received the territory with high and low justice; in order to gather his officers there, he had lands of the parish of Séniergues bought from the lord Fortanier de Gourdon and established there a town for trade and a fort for defence, capturing an inexhaustible spring. A charter of the seneschal Hélie de Campène granted the newcomers unusual rights: an oven, hunting, the free use of the pastures. The chequerboard plan survives in full, but the square with covered arcades has disappeared beneath the junior seminary of the 19th century, today a rehabilitation centre. The church of Saint-Barthélemy, of the 14th and 15th centuries, classified in 1936, houses three altarpieces of the early 17th century from the workshop of the Tournié.

Further reading

Getting there : Free access to the village; unguided or guided visits of the bastide offered by the tourist office of the causse de Labastide-Murat.

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

Montfaucon
Thierry46 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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In the same department

All places — Lot (15).