Inheritance. Back to this time when Toulouse was the city with two faces…
By Toulouse editorial staff
Published on
In the central Middle Ages, the city kept its layout inspired by Roman antiquity. It is crossed by the cardo maximusfrom the Porte Narbonnaise in the south to the Porte Nord (called Porterie, formerly under the Place du Capitole) and from east to west by the decumanus maximusfrom the Porte Saint-Etienne to the Roman Pont-Vieux (upstream of the current Pont-Neuf).
The Narbonne castle
At the beginning of the twelfthe century, we mention for the first time the trace of the Narbonnais castle. The residence, which only looks like a Roman gate flanked by a few buildings to accommodate the count, his entourage and a garrison, was enlarged between 1155 and 1175. Raimond V erected a fortification of about 40 meters over 32 meters with a keep defended by a double moat.
Saint-Etienne cathedral, the other major project
Saint-Etienne cathedral is the other major project of this period launched from 1071 by Isarn de Lavaur, the bishop of Toulouse (continued by his successor Amiel, between 1105 and 1139). A cloister, a chapter house and a large refectory were built to the south and east of the building.
There are also the houses of the canons who lodge clerics there and as well as a hospital where lay people take care of the poor and the sick.. sea breamthe oldest monastery in the city, attached to the abbey of Moissac (Tarn et Garonne) itself dependent on that of Cluny (Saone-et-Loire) is also the subject of several work campaigns. It has outbuildings such as the Dalbade priory. The Brotherhood of Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem, which was housed there, was expelled before investing in new buildings: the Saint-Rémi church, a Cazals (house with an enclosed space) and half of a hospital.
The institution must develop with the addition of a cloister, a cemetery, an oven and seven workrooms (workshops-shops), to the point of occupying practically the entire islet of Dalbade.
The birth of the village of Saint-Sernin
To the north, Toulouse sees a “new town” being erected around the ancient early Christian basilica of Saint-Sernin, raised in honor of Saint-Saturnin. It took advantage of the extraordinary boom in pilgrimages and became a major stage on one of the four main routes leading to Santiago de Compostela. The canons, in open conflict with Bishop Isarn, decided to erect a new imposing Roman building, starting in the 1070s, guaranteed 26 years later by Pope Urban II. An intense economic activity develops there with the creation of a new urban core, the Bourg, attested by a tax on cereals in 1077.
Initially delimited by a ditch, the whole is surrounded, around 1140, by a rampart and is pierced by the Croses, Naubernat, Pouzonville and Matabiau gates. Traders and hoteliers settled there, as well as wealthy families like that of Pierre Maurand who owned a mansion, located at the corner of the current streets of Taur and Périgord.
Matthew Arnal
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