Description
Bastide de Larrazet, a village at the gates of Gascony.
The village is built on a rocky peak overlooking the Gimone valley and was built between 1253 and 1265. Larrazet is also one of the 9 new towns erected by the Abbey of Belleperche in the 13th century, a little before that of of Beaumont-de-Lomagne.
We find there:
– Walls, built to protect the village, we can still see some traces at the level of the rock
– The orderly plan typical of bastides has been well preserved, even if most of the houses were restored in the following centuries.
– The remains of fortified gates
-The medieval habitat with very beautiful half-timbered houses in rue Joffre with remarkable sculpted parts, but also other merchant houses, in stone whose projection lined with columns offered privileged shelter for selling goods. They are called angles.
The abbey castle dominates the Gimone valley. It is built on the remains of an older castle built in 1265. Following the great damage suffered during the Hundred Years War, Abbot Jean de Cardaillac redevelops it and builds a 3-storey tower whose staircase serves the buildings. To observe: the Flamboyant Gothic style tower, the mullioned windows, the magnificent ribbed vaulted staircase that turns around a central core, which you can see when visiting the castle.
A few steps away, the Sainte Marie-Madeleine Church, in the Gothic style, was also rebuilt in the 16th century by Abbot Jean de Cardailhac. The octagonal bell tower, decorated with gargoyles, hexagonal bell tower, decorated with gargoyles is entirely built of freestone taken from the quarries of the locality.
The arms of Cardailhac are carved on the galleries of the bell tower: gules of the silver lion, langued, armed and crowned in gold, accompanied by 13 bezants in orb.
Inside, the eye is immediately drawn to the splendid Baroque altarpiece of 60m² built in stucco in 1687 by Nicolas Board, without moldings. It offers a set of remarkable scenes, statues and decorations. Depth and abundance of looks, emotion of faces, abundance of details, make this altarpiece a Baroque architectural work of the very first order.
Opening
All year round, daily
Prices & payment
Free of charge.
