The bastide of Monfort-en-Chalosse and its fountain with 100 steps!
The bastide of Monfort-en-Chalosse and its fountain with 100 steps!
Montfort-en-Chalosse
Culture and Heritage
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English
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Montfort-en-Chalosse bears a name that suggests that the locality is on an unusual height. In fact, it is only the culminating point of a plateau from which one dominates a vast region going circularly from the Pyrenees to the vast forest of the Landes.
The location of Montfort was ideal for a bastide that the English erected here as in many places in Gascony from the 13th century onwards by providing these bastides with very liberal charters, so that in 1241 the whole of the South sided with the king. of England against Louis IX. Feudalism was not oppressive in Montfort. The townspeople could protect themselves all the better against the probable assailant, as here at Montfort the nearby hills were natural outposts. The bastide therefore dominated.
In its medieval history, it did not have to undergo siege. The Mount was strong. Franchises remained intact. The two ogival gates of the city have never been violated by the enemy, one to the east, the Porte de Parquet and the other opposite the Grand-rue which was demolished in 1884 and of which an outbuilding served as a prison.
We know in what circumstances Montfort-en-Chalosse, a humble town, is involved in the history of France. François I, returning from his captivity in Spain, passing through Bayonne and Dax, was at Montfort on March 24, 1526, guest of Odet de Foix, viscount of Lautrec, governor of Guyenne, friend and guard of the king... do not know if the king stayed long in the castle of Laur...
Visit the Chalosse Museum, the Fountain of 100 steps, the Romanesque church.
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Montfort-en-Chalosse bears a name that suggests that the locality is on an unusual height. In fact, it is only the culminating point of a plateau from which one dominates a vast region going circularly from the Pyrenees to the vast forest of the Landes.
- Français
