Pilgrims inn
They wear a satchel and a wide-brimmed hat adorned with a shell and hold a bumblebee, this iron stick on which to lean, very useful also against brigands or wolves. Each under its warhead, three pilgrims in purple or white tunics advance in the same direction.
Its Church of the Holy Sepulcher houses exceptional frescoes from the 14th century, illustrating the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Jacquard frescoes in Villeneuve d’AveyronĪfter three days of walking, the hiker crosses the medieval gate of a first bastide: Villeneuve d’Aveyron, founded in 1231 in the mineral causse. This flourishing period radiated the south-west of France until the Hundred Years War (1337-1453). About 300 bastides were created in 150 years, managed by consuls elected by the population each year. Forced to demilitarize his strongholds for having supported the Cathar cause, Raymond VII began to build these places by granting freedoms and franchise towns to the new inhabitants. These cities had been founded by the counts of Toulouse.
Read the fileSantiago de Compostela: itinerary, pilgrimage… Our guide Land of bastides The Sainte-Foy abbey in Conques (Aveyron), the starting point for this variant. It had developed from the end of the 13th century with the aim of crossing the new towns with strong economic influence: the bastides. This medieval variant of the paths leading to Santiago departs from the superb abbey church of Conques, in Aveyron, to head south through Tarn and Tarn-et-Garonne towards Toulouse, in Haute-Garonne. It also has the advantage of being cited less in the summer. But the “alternative route” Conques – Toulouse is just as interesting, interwoven with the churches of the ancestral places of welcome appreciated by pilgrims. It is not in the first division of the Chemins de Compostelle, like the route of Puy and the route of Arles which it connects.