Lauzerte

A favorite stop on the road to St Jacques de Compostela. Lauzerte country house high in the Quercy Blanc 39 km northwest of Montauban, Tarn-et-Garonne, the house of Lauzerte overlooks a landscape of southern colors, ranks among the "Most Beautiful Villages of France" and is a necessary stop on the road to St Jacques de Compostela.
Originally, Hill was a Gallic oppidum Lauzerte. Its present name dates from around the year one thousand. From the Latin "lucerna" lamp, it means a great position visible from afar like a light. At the end of the twelfth century, the Count of Toulouse received the hill donation to build an Castelnau, protected by a castle town.

The foundation of a strategic and economic interest, was an immediate success. Two hundred building lots were distributed to settlers, attracted by the freedoms granted. Lauzerte around 1200, stretched along a single street in the north, while a path skirted the plateau south. Between the two, the space was quickly occupied and the space created on the model of Montauban. Suburbs achevèrent later urbanization fortified site.

Step pilgrims of Compostela, commercial city, populated and rich, as evidenced by its medieval houses, Lauzerte remains one of the finest and most exemplary catelnaux height based in the south.

Placed at the heart of the appellation Chasselas de Moissac and production area Melons Quercy Lauzerte watch in effect on a campaign where the paths appetizing tacking between limestone plateaus and valleys. These are the seasons colors fruit trees, sunflower, corn, grapes, lavender ...

The wealth of small local heritage dominated the brightness of limestone (pigeon, mills, chapels isolated, prosperous farms ...) echoes the charm of Lauzerte. There is also the charm of a mill output Lauzerte, after crossing the 953 county.

Exemplary high city of medieval architecture organizes houses around the church of St Bartholomew and the place of Angles, one of the most beautiful in the region. The walls evoke the role Lauzerte, torn between the English and the French during the Hundred Years War.

The old houses, Gothic or Renaissance, recall that the city was also a paradise for wealthy magistrates and prosperous merchants.They knew the privilege of defending their quality of life.

Lauzerte today continues on this path, to the delight of visitors.