Saint-Nicolas-de-la-Grave, la sauveté du port

Saint-Nicolas-de-la-Grave

The crossroads is strategic: here the Garonne receives the Tarn, and the plateau of the left bank commands both valleys. In the 12th century the monks of Moissac built a castle there, disputed by the viscounts of Lomagne, and a settlement formed around it, with a port at its foot. In 1135, Abbot Guillaume of Moissac, the viscount Saxetus of Lomagne and the viscountess Sybille of Auvillar granted the town a charter of sauveté — a monastic foundation earlier than the bastide movement — and its inhabitants became free within the enclosure; an additional act bound the viscount never to take their town from them. From then on the place was called Saint-Nicolas, after the saint under whose protection its population of fishermen and boatmen had placed itself; devotion was such that pilgrimages were exchanged with the neighbouring guild of Auvillar. The castle keeps its two towers of the 13th century, twenty-five and twenty-eight metres high, and today houses the town hall. The Garonne, by withdrawing, has carried the port away; the boatmen have gone, and their pilgrimages with them, but the name has stayed on the map.

Wikipédia — Saint-Nicolas-de-la-Grave ↗

Getting there : 8 km from Moissac by the D 813 then the D 15. The castle, now the town hall, can be visited during the day at the opening hours of the hôtel de ville; the square, the market hall of 1898 and the church of Saint-Victor adjoin it. The chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Pitié, the former parish church of the boatmen, stands below, towards the old port.

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

Ambient sound