"A unique fortified medieval village " a Larressingle Travel Page by mke1963

Larressingle is a medieval fortified village almost unique in Europe. It is the only remaining such structure in France. Far from being a crusty old ruin, villagers still live within the castle walls as they have done since the 13th Century. The village features in the government-listed "Most Beautiful Villages in France" books .

You can rent our house in Larressingle for a wonderful vacation in this beautiful countryside. It is advertised in Virtual Tourist's Local Merchants programme! (Both houses fully booked now until May 2005)

Known locally as the "little Carcassonne" of the Gers, the village lies just 1km off the St. Jacques de Compostelle pilgrimage route (Via Podensis route).

Within the castle walls a museum brings to life the ways of local people during medieval times. There is an art gallery and several small shops selling local craft, tapestries, hand-made jewellery, ceramics and souvenirs. A creperie serves snacks and drinks throughout the day. Say hello from us (and try the cider!)

Outside the castle walls, in the "Cite des Machines du Moyen-Age", there are daily hands-on demonstrations of medieval war machines used for attacking or defending castles such as that at Larressingle. In high season plays are performed outdoors in the gardens just outside the gates.

Surrounding the fortified village on three sides is an unusual field: it contains original, medieval species of vines and fruit trees. The field has just been sold so it is to be hoped that the new owner will continue this unsung 'passion'. There is no public access to the field.

1.5km south, the Roman bridge Pont d'Artigue spans the River Osse. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, somewhat bizarrely because the bridge is quite modern. It is believed to be the only bridge specifically built for the Compostella pilgrims.

Another few km south (just across the Condom-Eauze road) is the village of Mouchan, with a spectacular Romano-Gothic church.

The next town to the West is Montreal du Gers, about 10km away. To the east, just 5km is the rather notorious town of Condom.

Georeference: 0.313002, 43.944274
Driving map.

It is difficult for us to imagine what life was like 2000 years ago, as in those dark timesfew records were kept, and after the Romans, for a thousand years early medieval Europe is a mystery.

The whole of what is now Gascony and the Gers was covered in a thick forest, not as impenetrable as that in the Landes, but still thick and dark. In the many river valleys, the undergrowth was especially dense and lush, fuelled by almost annual floodwaters.

The first established settlers ived first in small tribes behind wooden pallisades, mainly on the hilltops where the soil was thinner and so the vegetation less dense and easier to cut down and navigate. In the earliest times, a traditional route through the area was known as the Tenareze and this track kept to the ridges and the high ground, crossing few rivers from the Pyrenees right to the coast at Bordeaux. It passed through the northern Gers (indeed the northern Gers is known as the Tenareze today).

As the centuries passed, slowly the hilltop fields were enlarged, dow the valley sides but it was still mainly forest with settled clearings on the ridges. As Capetian France started to form in the late 10th Century, the Duchy of Gascony was a wild and fearsome place - thick woods, poorly defended settlements and marauding bands of thugs and migrants looking for a space to take over where the weak were unable or unwilling to defend. In those days, Gascony covered much of south-western France and Aquitaine was considered north of the Garonne only.

Over time, a secondary route crossed the higher ground in eastern Gascony, cutting a path from the Mediterranean towards northern Spain. It also used the ridges but also crossed many more valleys, usually where they were narrow or where the rivers were known to be passable. In the earliest times, the many rivers were passable only from late summer to early winter, before melting snow and the rainfall had deepened and widened them.

And so, at some stage during Crassus' invasion of southern Gaul, a general stood on a hill outside some collection of wooden huts and declared "Retro Singuli", or "Right Behind You" as a warning to his exhausted troops that he was waiting for anyone who retreated in the face of the scurrilous Sotiates tribe. The Sotiateshad proved particularly troublesome to the Romans who were used to winning battles quickly and moving on. The Sotiates, whose home was in the village of Sos-en-Albret, refused to cave in and fought on for years, earning them the respect of the Romans. The unknown general who uttered the phrase "Retro Singuli" was unaware that the hilltop would for ever be known as Rettro Singuli, as it metamorphosed over the centuries to Larressingle.
(By a typical quirk of fate, our previous home was in Sos!)
At some point, a Roman decided to build a villa here on the ridge where Larressingle now sits: part of a mosaic and a sword (now in the museum at Lectoure) have been found in the village.

It's not until sometime around the 11th Century, more than a thousand years later, that Larressingle turned from being somewhere little and insignificant into somewhere little and insignificant built out of stone, when a smal church was built in the village. At the end of the century, abbot Hugues became bishop of Agen and Bazas, and donated the parish of Larressingle to his order. Thereafter, Larressigne belonged to the bishop of Agen, and subsequently, from 1317, to the bishop of Condom, when the Condomois was separated from the Agenais.

Over a 200 year period, the parish grew, and the people gathered for protection around the church, under increasing fortifications. Larressingle lay very close to the important east-west routes and commanded good views over the countryside. A new church was built in the 12th Century, dedicated like its predecessor, to St. Sigismund. The new church, Romanesque in style, was heavily fortified and the tower doubled as a defensive watchtower. The thick walls can be seen to this day, far thicker than those of churches in nearby villages. The church could hold the entire village, and has its own well (now covered up) where the besieged could wait for relief, if it came.
Towards the end of the reign of Louis IX (also known as St. Louis) around 1270, the fortified church started to become a real fortified village as exterior walls were built to enclose a much bigger space. Alphonse of POitiers, brother of the king, had already created the bastide of Montreal du Gers, and the advantages of fortifying the entire village were not lost on everyone in the area. The whole of Gascony was constantly disputed by the French and English kings, and it was becoming an increasingly dangerous place to live. The inside of Larressingle was focused on the church, and the keep, just two metres away and matching the church's height and strength. Given the arrow slits, it would be a brave man who venured, in anger, between the two, even if they managed to breach the exterior walls.
Many theories have been suggested as to why Larressingle is so heavily fortified for such a small place, but none have worn the test of time. Surely, one day, archaeologists will tell us - perhaps by digging up our garden, which lies 30 metres from the entrance of the castle?!

Over the succeeding centuries, Larressingle slipped in and out of the view and use of scheming bishops, generals and kings, at one point being used as a base for harrassing Condom itself, in 1589. Later, one hundred troops were stationed at Larressingle to prevent this from happening again. It was even agreed, just a year later, that Larressingle's fortifications would be torn down, but this order was never executed, and successive bishops and generals considered Larressingle as an important fortified asset, as long as it could be held!
The ultimate indignity was the removal, in the 1780s, of many of the castle's timbers to be used in the residence of the Bishop of Condom at nearby Cassiagne, 5 km to the south. The timbers have never been replaced. On the 29th July 1791, the whole fortified village was sold, empty and deserted to the Claizac brothers for 375 francs.

The village almost fell into total irreparable ruin over the following one hundred years, with much of the village population moving into bigger houses in what is now known as 'Barry' (which means 'suburb' in the Gascon language...and is also believed to be the source of the word 'barrio'!). Even the houses in the area outside the walls are believed to date back to at least the 14th Century, and our barn has a curious end-wall that incorporates enormous dressed stones.
Larressingle was saved by the intervention of Edouard Mortier, the last Duke of Treviso (the great grandson of the famous Napoleonic general), who, in the 1920s, mounted a major campaign to safeguard French heritage. Larressingle was one of his chosen targets, and his tireless pursuit of funding and benefactors resulted in the restoration of the village and fortifications as we see them today.
As a curious twist to this story, the good duke focused his attention on the city of Boston, Ma. where much of the funding was raised. There is no known connection between Boston and this part of France, yet Bostonians gave generously to the project, and to this day, people from Boston are particularly welcomed in the village, and the southern wall of the keep has a commemorative plaque in honour of these American benefactors. Merci, Boston!