Circulades

This ‘circulade’, sited on the transhumance route and at the crossroads of the salt road, developed quite rapidly under the guidance of its owners, the abbots of Gellone and the lords of Saint-Pargoire. The great period of expansion in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries played a crucial part in the village’s development.

This phenomenon extended to the entire region, and Saint-Pargoire and its priory were considerably enlarged. The walls around the settlement enclosed the church, following the rise and fall of the landscape and the meanderings of the Pontel, the stream which encircled the ramparts almost completely. Seen from above they look like a snail-shell surrounding the church. Indeed, the snail was to become the symbol of the village.

The building of the church of Saint-Pargoire, probably on the foundations of an earlier church, took place during the period of expansion mentioned earlier. It marks the birth of rural southern Gothic architecture and is the largest church built in this style in the cantons of Gignac and Aniane.

It is an imposing building standing in the heart of the village in which it is enshrined. Quite unlike the bright and airy traditions of northern Gothic art, rural southern Gothic, as exemplified in the church of Saint-Pargoire, is typified by a compromise between resistance to and adaptation of the Romanesque and the Gothic aesthetic.

The church is decorated with stained-glass windows of exceptional quality and bears witness to an architectural and economic golden age. The village effectively marks the southern limit of our territory. Here, jewels of architecture are found side-by-side with a clearly-defined identity as a place where wine is grown. Saint-Pargoire has more than one trick up its sleeve to bewitch its visitors and offer something of interest to everyone.


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