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Ténarèze Tourist Office - +33 (0)5 62 28 00 80
Gascogne Lomagne Tourist Office - +33 (0)5 62 64 00 00
Gascogne Lomagne Tourist Office - +33 (0)5 62 64 00 00
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Corinne DucasseClassified tourist resort
The town of Lectoure occupies a prominent place in the tourist environment of the Gers department. The municipality directly contributes to the notoriety, minima national, of the department. It constitutes a major element of the “Gers tourism” ecosystem.
If its physical position at the top of one of the natural promontories of Gascony plays a crucial role in this pre-eminence, it nonetheless remains true that the city enjoys a strong image and real recognition, both regional (Greater South-West) and national scale.
Lectoure is a destination and attracts a varied public, structuring a broad tourist season.
A source of life, a fountain is not trivial. Even more so when we are dealing with a 900th century construction, whose workmanship is close to perfection. XNUMX years later, it has not aged a bit, a thing to change the water that we today consider unfit for consumption. The large Gothic arch accommodates two smaller ones (geminates in the jargon).
Behind the very deep reservoir, horizontally speaking, the largest quantity of water until the 19th century was stored. In other words, it was a real treasure.
The question was how to keep it! And the solutions are often the same, weapons, blue as the earth…. Sorry Léo Ferré. Look up, gunboats bear witness to the presence of a guard to watch over the fountain cistern! IF you're not full of information, talk to a guide...!
Located in a luxurious and cozy setting of a former private hospital from the 17th century, the Lectoure thermal center offers the ideal conditions for treatment and rejuvenation.
The city's thermal water, sulfated, chloride and sodium, is recognized for its therapeutic virtues in rheumatology and the after-effects of osteoarticular trauma.
The benefits of Lectoure thermal water are based on a source buried more than 1000 meters deep discovered in 1979.
The Count's power was not just a matter of treaties, edicts and other official writings, it required a place of exercise visible to all, a Châaaaaaateau!
Time has reduced it to its simple west wing, which you can partially explore: two vaulted rooms, a belvedere camped at the top of the western bastion and a postern or hidden door. The scale of the medieval fortress is no longer, and this has been since the 18th century, a century during which the eastern part of the ruined castle was destroyed to build the large hospital-manufacture.
The ensemble constituted is one of the major sites of the town of Lectoure. Guided tours or a free walk (less informative of course...) are essential, especially since inside a "Village of Brocs" has been established there since 2015. The hospital had just closed in July 2013 after more than 250 years of good and loyal service. Have no fear, dear paladins, if there is a problem, a new health establishment has been created!
Between the Tower and the House that's what it's all about. The goal is to protect yourself, to take refuge while living in the most medieval comfort. But all this has a cost, which only the nobles will be able to afford.
We are in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, the Counts of Armagnac are at the height of their power and any gentleman has every interest in building in their capital, Lectoure.
Between the cathedral and the castle, on the main street, no less than 30 towers will rise from the ground. Only 6 are still proud and safe, one of them, the Tour d'Albinhac, hosts a bar-restaurant and deserves passing admiration!
You will note the staircase tower, rounded part of a corner of the tower, which only begins at 5m high... An unorthodox way of ensuring that no one gets in easily, even the owner, confined to ladders , or removable stairs on the lower parts!
It all began in the Middle Ages, when tanners, “smelly workers”, set up shop outside the ramparts at the top of the southern slope. The water flows down and under the bridges, in 1752 a new brand will become Manufacture Royale in 1754 and will bring together centuries-old know-how under a single banner. This majestic, imposing establishment will employ up to 200 workers, working on the 140 tanning bins. The activity declined in the second half of the 1900th century, ceasing around XNUMX. What remains is the building, a unique piece of its kind in the entire southwest, which earned it classification as a Historic Monument. To discover with our guided tours (outdoors) or for the European Heritage Days!
The famous Senegalese Tirailleurs regiments represent a significant portion of the soldiers who died at the front during the Great War. Lectoure was chosen like three other towns in the south to act as an adaptation “airlock” between Black Africa and the north-east of France.
Barracks, an administration, a hospital, a real city within a city emerged from the ground in a few months, under the command of military engineers. Mobilized rather by force in our former colonies (current at the time), Lectoure will serve as a rear base to acclimatize to the metropolitan climate or after a period on the front to recover and recover as quickly as possible. One factor had not been taken into account: endemic diseases.
Result of the races, once the armistice signed many will not be able to return immediately, already fallen ill or not, they will be in total 98 to die between the autumn of 1918 and the end of the winter of 1919.
A “military square” reminds us of their memory, of the expected sacrifices of these populations who came from far away to defend freedom, those who will obtain it much later for their own lands. Moreover, post-war returns will only be permitted under special conditions.