Bastide

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Bastides are fortified towns. They were built mailnly in the south of France, in the Middle Ages. Bastides were built maily between 1229 and 1373. There are about 400 bastides in total. They all have a central square, and a rectangular street layout. On the market square, the houses have arcades. They were built in places that were easy to defend. This means either on the top of a hill or on a plain which was easy to defend.

Well-known bastides today are Carcassonne and Andorra la Vella.

Contents

[edit] Overview

Bastides have the following characteristics:

  • They are cities in the medieval sense of the word.
  • There is an act of foundation
  • There are source text referring to them.

Usually, the following also applies

  • They are planned cities. Usually it is one archictect (or one lord) that built them.
  • Usually they were bulit where there was already a village beforehand, or at a place with mythical sigificance. Very often, they were also built in locations where there was already commerce beforehand (like at a crossroads of trade routes,eg.)

[edit] What where they built for?

Most Bastides where built in the countryside, to basically serve the needs of local trade (and most often, agriculture). A few of them were built in positions which are easy to defend; others are where it is possible to defend them, but most Bastides where simply put where they fit best. The period when they were built was a peaceful one in the region.

[edit] How are they organised?

[edit] Central square

The central element of all bastides is a central place. It was used for markets, but it is also used for political and social functions. A typical square (likely a prototype for others) can be found in Montauban.

Generally, there is just one square. Exceptions are Saint-Lys and Albias. They have one square for the market, and one square for the church.

The place is also used to divide the city into quarters. Generally it lies outside the axe of traffic. There are three possible layouts:

  • completely closed: Place does not touch any street. Extrenmely rare, one example is at Tournay (where it is 70 on 72m)
  • single-axis: These result from a single-axis design of the bastide. All roads run in one direction and are parallel. Here and there there are alleys cut between the roads. In that case the square is between two roads. Typical such squares are 50-55m per side.
  • grid-layout:Directly modeled on the case of Montauban.

Generally the flattest location available was chosen for the square

[edit] Church

Except in very rare cases, the church was not on the central square. Usually it was at an angle, and gave to the square diagonally. One of the rare exceptions is Villefranche-de-Rouergue.

[edit] Houses

There were clear rules how houses could be built in the bastide. The front of the houses - the facades - had to line up. Also there had to be a small space between the houses. The different housing lots were all alike. 8m by 24m was a common size. There were only a limited number of lots. This varied between 10, and several thousand (3.000 in Grenade-sur-Garonne)

[edit] Streets

The streets were usually 6-10 m wide, so a chariot could pass through. They ran alongside the facades of the houses. Alleys run between streets, these are usually only 5-6m wide. Sometimes they are only 2-2.5m wide. In a bastide there were usually 1-8 streets.

[edit] City walls

Since most bastides were founded in a peaceful period of history, most had no city walls or fprtifications, at the start. Such things were added later. This was done either through a special tax, or through an act that required that the inhabitants of the city helped build the walls. A good example is Libourne. Ten years after the city was founded, its inhabitants asked for money to build city walls. Once they had received the money, however, they spent it on making their city prettier, rather than building walls.

At the beginning of the Hundred Years' War, many bastides that had no city walls were destroyed. Some of the others quickly built city walls of stone, to protect the city.

[edit] Layout of a bastide

There are different base layouts for bastides. It seems that for each type of layout, there was one bastide that was an example on how to build such a layout. The most common layout seems to have been to start from two perpendicular streets. Other streets parallel to the already existing two were added. This led to a (usually rectangualr grid layout.

[edit] Inorganic layout/embryonnary bastide

There seems to have been no plan when these basides were built. This may have been for the following reasons:

  • They were built on a location where there already was a hamlet or village
  • There were very few people who lived in the bastide (which means the base idea of a bastide failed)
  • The lords who built them had litlte or no authority to put their ideas into practice.

An example of such a bastide is La Bastide-de-Bousignac

[edit] Circular bastide

This layout was very rare. The only surviving exanple is in Fourcès.

[edit] Enclosing type

They were built based on a village or hamlet which had not fully grown. Beforehand, there already was a church or a kernel of houses. When new houses and quarters are added, they are added around the initial kernel.

[edit] One-axis design

These are quite common. It is estimated that 30-40% of all bastides had this design. Very often they can be found on flat land, in a plain. There is one principal street that links the two gates. The square very often is made by enlarging the main street. Very often there are alleys which run perpendicular to the main street. This layout is very easy to adapt to the geograpgy.

An example of such a bastide is Gimont. Gimont is 1000m long, and only 300m wide. Sometimes, there is one street which runs parallel to the main axis. In that case, the city square is between the two streets.

[edit] Two-axis design

This layout is considered as the type plan at the height of the movement. There are two axes, which are perpendicular (in a right angle). Streets are all at a right angle, parallel to one of the two base streets. The city square is very often in the center, or very near the center. The whole city is either rectangular or a square, or a hexagon or aoval.

[edit] Well-known bastides

Sorted by department (non-exhaustive list) :

  • Ariège : Campagne-sur-Arize, La Bastide-de-Bousignac, La Bastide-de-Sérou, Mazères, Mirepoix, Rimont.
  • Aude : Arques, Belpech, Carcassonne, Castelnaudary, Labastide-d'Anjou, Montréal.
  • Aveyron : La Bastide-l'Évêque, Najac, Réquista, Sauveterre-de-Rouergue, Villefranche-de-Rouergue, Villeneuve-d'Aveyron.
  • Dordogne (18 bastides) : Beaumont-du-Périgord, Beauregard-et-Bassac, Bénévent, Domme, Eymet, Fonroque, Lalinde, Molières, Monestier, Monpazier, Puyguilhem, Roquepine, Saint-Aulaye, Saint-Barthélemy-de-Bellegarde, Saint-Louis-en-l'Isle, Vergt, Villefranche-de-Lonchat, Villefranche-du-Périgord.
  • Gard : Aigues-Mortes.
  • Haute-Garonne : Aignes, Alan, Beauchalot, Blajan, Bouloc, Boulogne-sur-Gesse, Boussens, Calmont, Carbonne, Cazères, Fonsorbes, Gaillac-Toulza, Grenade-sur-Garonne, Labastide-Beauvoir - Labastide-Clermont, Lavelanet-de-Comminges, Lestelle-de-Saint-Martory, Le Burgaud, Le Fousseret, Nailloux, Montastruc-la-Conseillère, Montréjeau, Palaminy, Plaisance-du-Touch, Revel, Rieumes, Saint-Félix-Lauragais, Saint-Lys, Saint-Sulpice-sur-Lèze, Villefranche-de-Lauragais.
  • Gers : Avensac, Barcelonne-du-Gers, Barran, Bassoues, Beaumarchés, Bretagne-d'Armagnac, Castéra-Verduzan, Cologne, Fleurance, Fourcès, Gimont, Jegun, Labastide-Savès, Lannepax, Marciac, Masseube, Mauvezin, Miélan, Mirande, Monguilhem, Montréal-du-Gers, Pavie, Plaisance, Saint-Clar, Sarrant, Seissan, Solomiac, Valence-sur-Baïse.
  • Gironde : Cadillac, Créon, Libourne, Sauveterre-de-Guyenne.
  • Landes : Arouille, Baigts, Betbezer-d'Armagnacr, Bonnegarde, Cazères-sur-l'Adour, Coudures, Duhort-Bachen, Geaune, Grenade-sur-l'Adour, Hastingues, Labastide-Chalosse, Labastide-d'Armagnac, Miramont-Sensacq, Montégut, Montfort-en-Chalosse, Pimbo, Port-de-Lanne, Rondebœuf, Roquefort, Saint-Gein, Saint-Geours-d'Auribat, Saint-Justin, Saint-Sever, Sarron, Sorde-l'Abbaye, Souprosse, Toulouzette, Villenave, Villeneuve-de-Marsan.
  • Lot : Beauregard, Bretenoux, Castelfranc, Castelnau-Montratier, Cazals, Fons, Labastide-du-Haut-Mont, Labastide-du-Vert, Labastide-Marnhac, Labastide-Murat, Les Vitarelles, Montcabrier, Montfaucon, Orgueil, Puybrun, Rudelle.
  • Lot-et-Garonne : Aiguillon, Damazan, Durance, Miramont-de-Guyenne, Monflanquin, Montpezat, Penne-d'Agenais, Puymirol, Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot, Sérignac-sur-Garonne, Villeneuve-sur-Lot, Villeréal.
  • Pyrénées-Atlantiques : Ainhoa, Arzacq-Arraziguet, Assat, Asson, Bellocq, Bougarber, Bruges, Gan, Garlin, Navarrenx, Nay, La Bastide-Clairence, Labastide-Villefranche, Lestelle-Bétharram, Montaut, Rébénacq, Vielleségure.
  • Hautes-Pyrénées : Avezac-Prat-Lahitte, Castelbajac, Galan, Lannemezan, Lubret-Saint-Luc, Montgaillard, Peyrouse, Rabastens-de-Bigorre, Saint-Martin, Sère-Rustaing, Saint-Sever-de-Rustan, Tournay, Trie-sur-Baïse, Vidalos.
  • Tarn : Arthès, Castelnau-de-Lévis, Cordes, Lisle-sur-Tarn, Pampelonne, Réalmont, Saint-Urcisse, Técou, Valence-d'Albigeois.
  • Tarn-et-Garonne : Angeville, Beaumont-de-Lomagne, Castelsarrasin, Montauban, Monclar-de-Quercy, Montech, Négrepelisse, Valence-d'Agen, Verdun-sur-Garonne.

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