WHAT TO SEE IN LAUZERTE OCCITANIA

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Plaza des Cornieres in Lauzerte in Occitania in southern France

As I mentioned earlier, one of the great traveler discoveries since I published this blog is the South of France, especially for the numerous pretty medieval villages that you can visit on a car route through the area.

In my most recent travel by car by the region of Occitania, as it is called today, I have had the opportunity to visit Lauzerte, a charming town in the department of Tarn and Garonne. northwest ofToulouse.

Lauzerte you find it not far from Moissac and its wonderful cloister of the Romanesque abbey.

Plaza des Cornieres in Lauzerte in Occitania in southern France

It is a bastide, a type of fortified population that emerged at the end of the 12th century in southern France for defensive purposes and to facilitate economic development.

Specifically the Lauzerte's bastide has its origins in the request of local nobles to Count of Toulouse to build a castle around a hill around which 200 village houses were established, which led to the foundation of the initially named Castelnau.

The name of Lauzerte It has its origin in the word Lucerne, lamp, which refers to the high visibility offered by its location at the top of that hill.

Throughout history this bastide It had its greatest economic prosperity during the fifteenth century because around it they settled down to a hundred communes.

Rinze de Lauzerte in Occitania in southern France

What to see in Lauzerte

Now when you get to visit Lauzerte you will find a walled town, which originally had six doors, which is available urbanistically from its Cornieres Square and two streets that run in parallel.

In this square very beautiful porticoed buildings that advance you the peculiar architecture of white stones that characterizes all the constructions of the town.

In both the square and its streets you will find buildings with gothic-style ogival windows between the 12th and 14th centuries, as well as Renaissance windows from the 15th century.

Bliss arcaded square It has historically hosted major events, from markets and shows to public executions.

Rinze de Lauzerte in Occitania in southern France

Now in it you can also see the St. Bartholomew's Church, whose original building was from the 13th century, inside which you find a baroque altarpiece and paintings attributed to Joseph Ingres.

On your walk through the small fortified town you will see that very close to the church is the Barbican, a defensive element to which the Garden of the Pilgrims then you should know that Lauzerte is one of the stages of French Way of Saint James.

It is a curious garden that is arranged on the hillside as if it were the board game of The goose.

In this way you will cross the water as if it were a river or you will find a corner that emulates a prison, and the goal is to reach the Paradise, which would be the end of Santiago's road.

Rinze de Lauzerte in Occitania in southern France

In you walk around Lauzerte You can go up and down the two main streets seeing its characteristic rural architecture, or surround the town wall outside by marked pedestrian paths.