Discovery tour of the historic centre of Entraygues

Depart from the town of Entraygues-sur-Truyère, latitude 44.6460900 (N 44° 38’ 46”), longitude 2.5649600 (E 2° 33’ 54”)

• Top Portal

• Between the houses, imagine here a drawbridge and a high square tower housing the "High Gate" which was the great gateway, to the north of the city.

• Round Road

• Moving forward, the perimeter wall is easily revealed on our left, and at the back of the houses, built in the 19th century on the Tour de Ville, rests on this solid wall. We are here on the old round road of the fortified village. Imagine on the other side, on the current "City Tower" a ditch.
• Continue on the Right Street which we follow until the Marcou passage on the left).
• This "venelle" opens in the rue de l'Horloge, as does the dead end of the consuls just after.
• Note on the ground floor of almost every house, small wooden doors that opened onto the pighouses. In the past, and until the 39/40 war, each family of Entraygues raised their pig at home. Their excrement, spread throughout the city when they came out of their lean-tos, was covered with straw and ferns. The whole thing was an excellent manure used for the vineyards of the surrounding hillsides. Unfortunately, some of this manure was slowly seeping into the ground and it is easy to imagine how the infiltration of this contaminated water into the wells (200 inside the village once) caused many serious epidemics (typhoid, cholera...).
• Continue to the corner of clock lane.

• Tour of Escombels

• We discover the remains of a defensive tower whose importance we measure in the past. Let's observe the murderer: this is the Tower of "Escombels", the only one left on this side, which was part of the ramparts of the City.
• These medieval fortifications (represented in 1555 by a drawing by the notary of Cazaux) were begun in the 11th century and completed at the end of the 14th century. They had a castle and no less than 13 towers.
• Take the Clock Lane

• Clock Lane

• There was a mixed school here between the 14th and 17th century. After the wars of religions, the children were separated.
• After going under a cantou (covered passage under the houses)
• Let's Take Left, Right Street Again

• Right Street

• It is called this because it was to the right of the Main Square (hereafter). The street on the left is now called College Street.
• It was once the shopping street, the city's artery where shops and craftsmen stood.
• Here, many houses have retained the marks of the past.
• We distinguish the houses "of the rich", all covered in plaster, and the houses of the "poor" with the sub-bass of stone, then mounted with rags, supported by wooden half-timbers.
• Discover beautiful doors with their hammers, their forged and chiseled nails, carved stone frames, beautiful facades of half-timbered piers.

• Valletta Gate

• At No. 8 street, this curious walnut gate dates back to the 16th century. It was classified in 1927 and had two hammers: the bottom hammer for pedestrians and the top hammer for riders. The inner courtyard was made of stones with pebbles of rivers paving the ground.
• Arriving at No. 1 street, we can see an example of what were once these many small shops, the shops, with a central door framed by stone pedestals allowing the presentation of goods.
• We arrive in A. Castanié Square

• Albert Castanié Square

• it was first called Mage Square, or the main square of the fortress. We could get there through the south door or "Low Gate." It served as a market place and a place for general assemblies in many elections.
• After the war of 39/40, it took the name of Albert Castanié Square in memory of the leader of the local resistance killed in June 1944 by the Germans on the road to Golinhac (on this road, at the "Belvedere" dominating Entraygues in front of the confluence, a monument bears the names of the victims of that sad time).

• Noble Home

• On the right in the beautiful Renaissance house that bears the Inscription: "At the stage of Queen Margot", Marguerite de Valois known as "Queen Margot" would have spent the night of September 27, 1585, when she fled, following her breakup with her husband Henri de Navarre, future Henry IV. She reportedly sang a Marian song the next day in the chapel of the ND du Pontet before heading to the fortress of Carlat (Cantal).
• At the left corner of this house, on the graduation scale, flood levels are carried forward.
• Let's cross the square to the Lot.

• Valiech Tower

• It was between the outlet of Rue de l'Horloge and the Indigo shop.
• Above the store, we discover, in its niche, a "piéta" of the 15th century, the Virgin of the Portal Down, which was first called Nostra Dona d'en Dol (Our Lady of the Valley), when it was placed above the large gate that commanded the southern entrance of the village.
• 6 m wide, this portal was topped by the great Valiech Tower or Clock Tower, demolished in 1860 to recover the stones to be used for the construction of the present Church. Outside, a deep ditch on which was thrown the Levis Bridge.
• La Piéta were veiled in black when the city was affected by an epidemic.
• After the demolition of the Haute Tour Valiech, the Pieta was recovered and placed in this small niche. She became Our Lady of Pity, who was thought to be miraculous. Until 1960, it was still continuously flowering and near it burned candles for healing and women in childbirth.
• We arrive on the quays of the Lot (300 m to the left, is the Chapel ND of the Pontet and the Bridge on the Lot). Let's take a right.

• The Bedse

• To the right, the esplanade of the Bedisse so named, because small shrubs (the bedisses) used to grow there before the construction of the wharf by the Spanish prisoners of Napoleon I.
• La Bédisse, located outside the city walls, was under Louis XIV, a place of brawl.
• At the end of the wharf, there are still 3 large rings, the last vestiges of a long history: navigation on the Lot and the flotation of wood.
• This river was still a waterway, but only officially until July 10, 1835, by the Royal Ordinance, when the lower Lot Valley was built.
• We must know that as early as 1551, Entraygues was a large port and had 20 to 25 boats that brought to Cahors, located 30 leagues away, wine, cheese, rye, wood... There were no roads and traffic was through the Lot. In the 18th century, this track was used 6 months a year, from November to April, when the river was "marketable" (more important) it was said.
• In the Year III (1794) existed in Entraygues a navy union.
• The large boats used at the time, the "Gabares", could carry 18 to 27 tons. They were sold with their load, including merrains (wooden plank to make the moat of barrels) when they arrived in Cahors (region of vineyards). They were then sent to Bordeaux. In the course of the 19th century, spices and sea fish, the famous dried and smoked cod, "stockfisch" were brought back from Bordeaux. The Occitans replaced the term with "estofis." The dish prepared with potatoes is called "estofinada" (Almont the Junies being today the fiefdom of this local specialty). At the beginning of the 20th century, turlan, known as the Admiral, who died in 1912, still lived in Entraygues.
• The coup de grace was given to river transport by the development of the railway and then of the road system at the end of the 19th century (1880/1900).

• The Castle

• It was in 1278 that Henry II, Earl of Rodez and Viscount of Carlat, struck by the advantage of the defence of the place, this important crossing point, acquired the land of Entraygues and began the construction of the Castle which ended in 1282. It was around the same time that the Pont d'Olt was built; Truyère is already in service.
• He built three large separate towers, surmounted by niches (it is likely that a fortification already existed there). With rectangular two-storey buildings, the complex formed a magnificent building; it was not a pleasure castle but a military fortress, a nest of knights! Occitan chivalry was very popular then.
• The towers had an opening only above the chews. At their base, 2m thick, one could only enter the castle on the side of the city. The castle was the essential building of the fortified complex with ramparts and thirteen towers.
• It suffers from many seats but proved impregnable.
• Unfortunately, during a painful episode of the wars of religion, a Huguenot captain, who called himself "Gentle", managed, by trick, to seize the castle which he had been besieging in vain for a few days. During the course of ammunition, he had saps dug (sliced under a wall to topple him). He had barrels filled with sand placed pretending to be powder! The besieged surrendered on September 4, 1587.
• The castle had been condemned to a shaving in 1604.
• Between 1654 and 1658, the new owner, Henri de Montvallat, had the castle rebuilt, in part, as it stands today. Indeed, it remains from the 13th century, the central staircase, the 2 towers that have however been restored, in places, and a vaulted room on the ground floor.
• Le Château remained the property of the Montvallats for more than a century, until the Revolution. It was sold as an emigrant property in 1796 to Jean-Joseph Saury, a health officer.
• He later changed ownership several times. It now belongs to a diocesan religious community, the Sisters of Joseph de Clairvaux and houses a private primary school (the boarding school has been converted into a shelter).

• La Peyrade

• We are at the foot of the Castle, at the confluence of the Lot and the Truyère, at the place called "La Peyrade" so named because it was once a paved area, for the port, descending to the water's edge.
• We can therefore imagine all the activity of a former river port and shipyard where cargoes of wine, cheese and wood were embarked towards Bordeaux. Take the opportunity to appreciate the confluence of the two rivers and more precisely the Truyère which flows into the Lot.

• Parking and garden of the Grave

• 're going up the Rue de la Grave.

• The Pourtanel

• Turning right into the rue du Pourtanel, the name of a small gate opening the ramparts to exit the Truyère side, we see on the right the remains of the fortification wall of the round road and a beautiful medieval house.
• Walking through the small right-hand lane, the remains of these fortifications reveal their so-called "wall-lity" and corbelled architecture.

• Tour d'Iot

• At the end of the alley, on the right, there are also the foundations of a small tower of the ramparts, La Tour d'Iot. This ancient defence tower remains well preserved and gives us a good idea of the shape that the city could have surrounded by ramparts.
• The Castle Court:
• This one, which lives privately, cannot be visited. On the main door, the date engraved 1658, indicates the date of reconstruction of the building between the two towers. The pediment is framed by two shields (arms unfortunately mutilated during the Revolution), weapons of the city and de Montvallat, Lords of the city. The door, if it is ajar, lets you see the elegant stone staircase of the 13th.

• Low Street

• The is the most characteristic, best preserved, at the lowest level (as the name suggests), so the first to feel the effects of the waters during periods of flooding. At Number 9 is the house of a former boat master.
• We go up the castle street to the church square.
• 16 bis Church Square
• It was called Place Neuve in its early days. The first large house, at No. 3 at the corner of the square, was built by the Count of Montvallat for his mistress.
• The new church of the late 19th century is simple and stripped down.
• In the aisle, near the altar of the Virgin, on a pillar, is a plaque in memory of Déodat de Laparra, great benefactor of Entraygues.

• Former convent of the Franciscans

• In this beautiful old house, were sheltered the Franciscan nuns guard-sick, whose devotion remains in the memories of the elders.
• History of the Church:
• In 1680, the chapel built with the legacy of Déodat de Laparra became the parish church. It was rebuilt in 1860, almost in the same place, with a different orientation.
• The Church was restored in 1960. The organ that you can discover inside, was bought in Saint Maurs des Fossés in 2011 and inaugurated on May 11, 2014.

• College Street

• A 50 m, a beautiful Romanesque door, decorated with a garland of Oves, once opened on the street.
• It dates from 1570 and was the gateway to the hospital chapel, later Ursulines monastery which stood on the present site of the presbytery and public school.
• After the revolutionary turmoil (1803), a secondary school was established in these premises. Destroyed by fire in 1881, the public school as it stands was rebuilt on the site.
• In front of her, a short passage leads to the square Adolie Boubal, where the ancient Church of Entraygues stood.
• This street of the College (formerly rue Esquerre) was the one where the bourgeoisie of the city lived.
• Take the passage Of Monsignor Lacroix which leads us to the right at the Moulin de la Truyère.

• The Moulin de la Truyère

• This mill to which the Causeway converges (with more than 250 m, it was the longest of the Rouergue) was built in 1373 on the initiative of Déodat de Laparra. Long a purveyor of flour, the mill became at the beginning of the 20th century, in 1902, a small electrical factory, providing Entraygues with power at a time when, after candles and oil lamps, a meagre bulb of a few watts illuminated the interiors.
• He finally retired, defeated by EDF in 1960, but it was the department's first "electric factory."

• Tour Al Caîre

• On the site of the large house on the right stood the northwest corner tower of the ramparts, known as "Al Caîre" (around the corner). It was used as a prison.

• Passage of the Mill

• The passage of the mill is one of the "Cantous" that was used for the movement of the inhabitants and the rapid intervention of the guard towards the walls of the enclosure.
• Let's take a right to find ourselves at the starting point
• The Place de la Republique, known before 1914 as "Lo fieiral dels pigs" (the feral of pigs) with the monument to the dead in the centre.