DOURGNE with its
wild countryside and ancient sites, has a long history (Gallo-Roman remains) and an
eventful past. Established during medieval times in the Taurou valley, Dourgne was utterly
devastated during the Albigensian crusade (11th century) by Simon de Montfort and reconstructed
in its present location in the 14th century by King Philippe le Bel. The new "bastide"
(town fortified against the perfidious English) subsequently became an important manufacturing
The abbeys of "En Calcat" and «Sainte Scholastique".
SYNDICAT DINITIATIVE: Tel: 05 63 74 27 19
MASSAGUEL: Nineteenth-century church. Frescoes by Dom Robert. Ruins of
Contrast dominating the village.
VERDALLE: Château de Touscayrats (15th century), Château de Verdalle (16th/17th centuries),
church of St Jean (13th century) on the pilgrim route to St Jacques de Compostelle.
SAINT-AMANCET: Fourteenth-century chateau.
ARFONS: Church of St Jean (17th century). The maison Trilhe. The Chapelle des Escudiés.
ESCOUSSENS: La Halle (16th century). Gothic church. Valley of the Bernazobre
(Forest, caves of the Plo del May), Château Fontbruno, Monument to the Resistance.
Houses with half-timbering and corbel-work. Twelfth-century church, the oldest in the region.
LAGARDIOLE: Chateau and church.
Quaintly poised amongst picturesque rocks, Durfort is a small commune in the hollow
of the valley of the Sor at the foot of the Montagne Noire. Its speciality is
copperware, formerly the traditional manufacture of utilitarian articles such as
pots and pan but now increasingly engaged in more artisanal production.
SORÈZE: Its history is closely intertwined with that of the Benedictine abbey founded by
Pépin le Bref during the eighth century. The medieval village built on the Oppidum de Berniquaut
was destroyed in 1212 by Simon de Montfort. The Abbaye Notre-Dame de la Sagne was razed to the
ground and rebuilt several times. Sorèze was also a target for the Protestants during the seventeenth-century
religious wars, the bell-tower of St Martin being the sole remnant of the abbey left standing.
The Benedictines rebuilt the abbey in the course of the 17th and opened a school there in 1682.
The college, elevated to the rank of Ecole Royale Militaire by King Louis XVI, took students from
all round the world. A private establishment after the Revolution, the school was given a new lease
of life in 1854 by the Dominican Père Lacordaire and the Dominicans continued to teach there until
1978, when the task passed to laymen until its closure in 1991.