Villages in the wine growing plain

The commune of Lagamas is an area made up of "mas", (farmsteads) and small hamlets. It is a widely dispersed collection of settlements of which the most populous is Agamas, overlooking the plain of the Hérault. Religious worship was carried on at Notre-Dame-des-Garrigues, a possession of the Abbey of Gellone at Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, that served as a chapel of ease for the inhabitants of these mas.

Its site is today occupied by a funerary chapel. Since it was in the most favourable position for human settlement along the road leading from Gignac to Montpeyroux, Lagamas rapidly became the most populous of the hamlets.

In 1734 the commune had about thirty souls, by 1880 there were 71. In addition, the bishop moved the seat of the parish there in the 17th century. To replace the ferry that linked Gignac and Lagamas at the crossing of the Hérault, a suspension bridge was built in 1899, a remarkable feat of engineering that is more than 100 metres in length. A new parish church was built in the village in 1870 at the instigation of the Balsan family. It is sited right in the midst of the vines and was built by Dauvergne an architect from Châteauroux.

The successful development of wine-growing throughout the 19th century meant that the most prosperous families could build themselves splendid dwellings, ranging from châteaux to mansion houses. The ‘château’ of Pierrefont, built in 1863, with its fountain and its grounds, in a neo-Louis XV style is a particularly fine example of this kind of residence, recalling the ‘Palais de l’Aramonie’ in the Béziers area.

Protection of the vines, when they were threatened by disease at the end of the 19th century, depended on the building of the Canal de Gignac in the same period. It was a major undertaking: more than 50 kilometres of main canal and requiring certain enormous constructions, including the Lagamas siphon, one of the most impressive installations along the course of the canal.

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