Villefranche de Rouergue sightseeing tour

The Consuls' Bridge

Taking place on a former ford, the Consuls bridge was built in the mid-14th century to facilitate trade with the Segala neighbor. Built of limestone, it was originally equipped with two large square towers serving as a prison and toll station. These were dismantled in the 18th century, along with all the fortifications of the city.

Republic Street

La Republic street It is one of the main cart routes of the bastide that connected to the Place Notre-Dame. It has a width of approximately 7 metersIt facilitated the passage of carts, carriages, pack animals, and men, without disrupting the economy of the businesses that lined it. Dominated by the bell tower of the Notre-Dame collegiate church culminating at 58 meters highIt features architecture spanning from the 14th to the 20th century, with many Belle Epoque elements.

Fountain Square

At the heart of the fairly dense network of the bastide, the Place de la Fontaine It once played a major role. Locals and merchants would gather there to stock up on supplies and exchange news about the bastide. Built in the mid-14th century from a single block of stone, the fountain's basin is adorned with faces through which the water flows.

Combettes House

Sergent Bories Street

Look up, a narrow and imposing Renaissance tower dominates the Combettes house.
A courtyard, once separated from the street by a wall, gives access to the house. The tower, in which a spiral staircase serves two buildings, overlooks the street with authority and expresses the social status of the owners: you have to see and be seen...
The door and the first mullioned windows are decorated with Italianate sculpted motifs : scrolls, trophies, putti, shells and medallions.
At the top, an upper chamber rests on battlements below which are the family arms.

Gaubert House

Marcellin Fabre Street

Built after a fire that ravaged the Place Notre-Dame in 1497, this residence adopts the architecture of the end of the Middle Ages.
The tower, which houses a spiral staircase, provides access to two timber-framed wings. Above the door, an arch is decorated with feuilles d'acanthe and sculpted bases. with animals They are depicted in a basket of foliage. One wears a harness (a horse), a second holds an apple branch in its mouth, which could allude to original sin. Behind them are a figure and a dragon. The scene, which seems to draw inspiration from religious history, would illustrate a popular fable featuring learned animals.
Under the window, some grapes They evoke the opulence of the home. On either side, niches housed protective statues of patron saints. Like the one at the Combettes house, the tower is a functional and ostentatious element that embodies the social status of its occupants. It symbolically reproduces the construction plan of the keep that vertically dominates the fortified castle.

Place Notre Dame

La Place Notre-Dame It is the heart of the bastide town of Villefranche. It was formerly the political center with announcements to the population, the economic center with the three weekly markets, the judicial center with death sentences and the festive center with the numerous events.

From the mid-15th century, it became the religious center with the construction of the bell tower-porch providing access to the Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame. It is in this square that the large Thursday morning market still takes place today, attracting many locals and visitors throughout the year.

Notre-Dame collegiate church

Notre-Dame collegiate church

Villefranche-de-Rouergue market

Villefranche-de-Rouergue market

Dardenne House

Consulate Arcades

This residence of [quality] Renaissance It was built in the 1540s for Jean Imbert Dardenne, a copper merchant and consul of the city.mansionOrganised around a courtyard which served his store, it allowed him to receive his family and friends, and to impress his colleagues and best customers.
Here, we move by degrees from Gothic – which blazes on the ceiling of the first landing – to the audacity of the Renaissance, which throws an open gallery over the courtyard and makes smiling busts of Italian couples protrude from the walls.

Covered hall

Notre-Dame Street

Built in the 19th century, the covered market is located on theold parish cemetery of which the chapel remains. It replaced an older structure that most likely stood on the churchyard. Notre Dame collegiate churchBuilt in the neoclassical style with beautiful limestone, it now houses part of the weekly market as well as various activities and exhibitions.

Saint-Jacques Chapel

25 Rue Saint-Jacques

Built along a cart track leading to Notre-Dame Square, the chapel of Saint-Jacques It occupies a narrow plot of land the same size as the houses in the bastide. Adjoining a old hospital, it welcomed the pilgrims on the way to Santiago de Compostela from Conques and Villeneuve-d'Aveyron, towards Toulouse. Opened by a flamboyant Gothic style facade, the interior features 17th century painted decorations depicting a pastoral scene and cherubs holding the instruments of the Passion.

Chapel of the Black Penitents

Featuring a relatively understated classical-style facade, the Chapel of the Black Penitents It houses an exceptionally rich interior decor. Dating from the 17th and 18th centuries, the golden age of the Villefranche confraternity, it dazzles with the profusion of its representations. A jewel of Baroque artIts painted ceiling, its gilded altarpiece and its large paintings bear witness to the reconquest of the city by the Catholic Church in the aftermath of the Wars of Religion.

Chapel of Saint Emilie de Rodat

30 rue du Sergent Bories

It occupies the site of a former Franciscan convent It was mentioned in 1290 and destroyed after the French Revolution. One remains. 14th century chapter house which currently serves as a crypt for the reliquary of Saint Emilie of Rodat as well as part of the north wall of the nave.

The chapel of neo-gothic style dominated by a tall bell tower-wall, it was built between 1951 and 1958. Designed to receive pilgrims and the faithful, the chapel commemorates the action of Saint Emilie de Rodat, founder of the Congregation of the Holy Family, who took charge of the education of orphans in the 19th century.
Frescoes, a sculpted group by Denys Puech and stained glass windows adorn the crypt.

Hôtel de ville

Guiraudet walk

Formerly a courthouse, theCity Hall of Villefranche de Rouergue is a building of neoclassical style Built in 1861, flanked by two large cedar trees, it borders the Guiraudet promenade, laid out at the end of the 18th century on the site of the former moats. Its main facade is surmounted by a sculpted pediment depicting two children seated beneath the stars and symbols representing the French Republic.