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Bastide (planned town)Tarn-et-Garonne

Valence-d'Agen

Valence

Dimensions
The orthogonal plan of the bastide and its place Nationale with covered arcades, with the municipal market hall; the church of Notre-Dame, recorded in the Mérimée database, with its republican inscriptions carved on the front and the chevet; the three washing places, among them the lavoir Saint-Bernard of 1807; the chapel of Saint-Paul; the dovecote, the port and the canal. Buildings of brick, of stone and of timber framing; enclosure and ditches gone.
Period
Bastide of Edward I, 1283; enclosure and ditches destroyed after 1779; washing place of 1807.
What stands there
Church of Notre-Dame recorded in the Mérimée database; the bastide is the subject of an Inventaire général notice. Population of 5,287 inhabitants in 2022. The only bastide in the department founded by the king of England, in 1283.

Valence-d'Agen is the English bastide of the Tarn-et-Garonne: "founded in the 13th century by Edward I, king of England, Valence was thus an English bastide", writes Wikipedia, and the Inventaire notice specifies that it "is described as a bastide by the charter of customs granted by Edward I in 1283". Built in the plain of the Garonne, on the borders of the Agenais, on an orthogonal plan around a square with covered arcades, it was enclosed by a wall and a ditch, made over to the inhabitants in 1779 and then destroyed; the castle was in ruins in 1795. The market hall on the place Nationale still holds the markets, and three washing places, among them the lavoir Saint-Bernard built in 1807 in place of the muddy pools of the Plaça, punctuate the town. The church of Notre-Dame bears the words Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité carved on its front and its chevet.

Further reading

Getting there : Free access to the town. Market on Tuesday mornings and a producers' market on Saturday mornings under the market hall on the place Nationale, according to Tarn-et-Garonne Tourisme.

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

Valence-d'Agen
Thérèse Gaigé · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

This place in the great stories

In the same department

All places — Tarn-et-Garonne (23).