Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val (; , before 1962: Saint-Antonin) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Occitanie region in southern France.

Having played an influential and somewhat bellicose role in the history of the region from the 12th to the 17th centuries, it then declined economically and as a result has preserved largely the medieval core which has many listed buildings and is now a major tourist attraction. Its Sunday market is extensive and draws visitors and locals alike. It is a member of the Cittaslow movement.

Geography

Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val is situated in the gorge of the Aveyron river at the confluence of the Bonnette, overlooked by the limestone cliffs of the Roc d'Anglars. It is located at the edge of Rouergue where the Albigeois lands border with Quercy, to the north of the forest of Grésigne. It lies on one of the ancient pilgrim routes to Santiago de Compostela.

History

The area has been occupied for over 10,000 years, as evidenced by the archaeological discoveries at the nearby Upper Palaeolithic (Magdalenian) site of Fontalès.

The town is named after Antoninus of Pamiers, who brought Christianity to the Rouergue. He was martyred c. 305 when, following this success, he then tried to convert Pamiers, his home town in the Pyrenees. His remains were believed to have been interred on the site of the town, an abbey was founded in the 8th century by Festus, the local ruler of what was then known as Vallis Nobilis.

The abbey was expanded by the Benedictines in the 11th century, and it was finished around 1150. By the end of the 12th century it passed into the control of Augustinian Canons Regular.

Saint-Antonin had one of the first hospitals in the region, founded by the 8th century. Reformists also burned down that building in 1575.

From the 9th century, Saint-Antonin was ruled by one of the first nobles in the area to hold the title of viscount. They were powerful lords of Rouergue, but vassals of the count of Toulouse. The last independent viscount ceded all his rights to the King of France in 1249.

  • The Priory of Costejean
  • Oratory of Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette at Servanac
  • The market cross in place de la Halle.

Civil monuments

thumb|Maison des Consuls

thumb|Caserne des Anglais

thumb|Maison Muratet

  • The Old Town Hall (Maison des Consuls), built in 1125 for Archambault and subsequently the residence of the ruling viscounts before becoming the seat of the consuls in 1313. The facade features two carvings of very high quality; Adam and Eve with the serpent under the tree of knowledge, and the Emperor Justinian as law-giver, bearing a staff surmounted by the Imperial Eagle and holding an inscription which reads: it is meet that his Imperial Majesty should be empowered not just by force of arms but also by the power of Justice. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc undertook its restoration in 1846 with the help of the architect Théodore Olivier. It now houses Saint-Antonin's charming old-fashioned museum.
  • In addition to the Old Town Hall, several houses are designated as Monument historique:
  • The Caserne des Anglais (English Barracks) house, rue Guilhem-Peyré, was a base for English troops from 1352 to 1354, and eventually became a royal barracks. In 1685, dragoons were based here. After the Revolution, it was converted into a town house. The building has two stone levels topped by a third of half-timbered brick. The street facade is pierced by two entrances; the pointed arch on the left dates from the 13th or 14th century, and the simple moulded arch to the right features a 17th-century wooden door. Three mullioned windows illuminate the first floor (end 15th - early 16th century). Wooden galleries crown the top floor.
  • The Muratet house is an interesting example of medieval civil construction. Partly built in the early 13th century and enlarged in the 15th, the original building was probably a farmhouse. The façade, despite changes in the 19th century, retains its ashlar dressing and all the elements needed to understand its original order: three levels bordered by projecting moulded string courses (the first string based on a series of carved corbels); a series of arches on the lowest level (ground floor shops); two rows of four double windows in a pointed arch, connected by transom strings. At the end of the 15th century, the pointed arcades on the ground floor were replaced by segmental arches and a door lintel decorated with an ogee arch. Most double casement windows were transformed into quads. The elevation facing the courtyard was rebuilt with rubble at the end of the 15th century. The first floor consisted of two rooms separated by a wood-framed cob wall, supported by a central masonry pillar. Important remnants of a mural depicting griffins on interlaced medallions and an upper frieze of heraldic knights, dating to the first half of the 13th century are preserved on this wall. A spiral staircase with load-bearing core is built into an oval shell half protruding through the side façade, starting from the street. With its ogee-arched front door and various openings, its construction can be dated to the late 14th or early 15th century. It is considered to be one of the first examples of the spiral staircases which gradually replaced older square staircases of wood or stone in Saint-Antonin.
  • The Le Maréchal house, rue Cayssac: is a 13th-century building which gives an insight to the layout of a medieval residence. It consists of two structures at right angles to each other, with a wine cellar, two residential floors and an attic. Originally the house spanned an alley. On the first floor is a double window which is decorated with plants and false masonry and has window seats. Indentations indicate the position of ropes that supported curtains to divide the room.
  • The Leris house, place de la Halle, is an interesting example of a 15th-century commercial building façade. At street level it has a door and wide low and moulded arches. In courtyard, the façade has two doors and the stone work is adorned with abundant mouldings and carved pinnacles. In the courtyard, another door is surmounted by a shield supported by two monsters with human heads and griffins' feet, and surrounded by a garland.
  • The Ave Maria house, rue des Carmes, was the seat of the Brotherhood of the Virgin. The front door has an inscription engraved on pilasters up to the horizontal mullion: "Ave Mar. Gra. Pln. Na". It has an intact suite of four windows forming the first floor gallery. These cross-mullioned windows are separated by pilasters with pseudo corinthian capitals.
  • The Amour house appears to date from the 14th century. It has a ground floor built of stone, topped by a three-storey brick-filled timber frame slightly jettied from the ground floor. The ground floor is broken by three bays. The front door is flanked by two low arches corresponding to former shops. The one on the right has a two-headed keystone of a man and woman kissing. This house was a brothel in the Middle Ages, which no doubt links to the sign.
  • The Nut Oil Mill, in place Bessarel, is a much altered 15th century stone and half-timbered building. The ground floor has a 19th-century vertical stone mill wheel which crushed the nuts. Pivoting on a bed of stone, powered by a donkey or a horse, this granite millstone created a paste. This was then heated over low heat in a copper cauldron and then passed under a press consisting of a beam of about five metres, fixed to a frame, having its axis of rotation at one end and a screw capstan the other end, and producing a pressure of approximately 30 tons for 20 kg of nuts under the third of the beam near the axis of rotation.

thumb|House known as Maison du Roy

  • Other houses not registered or classified as historical monuments that are of architectural interest:
  • the house known as the King's (Maison du roy), in place de la Jogaria
  • the 13th century stone house at 14 rue Guilhem-Peyre
  • the wood-framed house at 53 rue Droite
  • houses in the street of Porte de Rodanèze
  • an inn or passage house (L'Auberge du Lion D'Or) situated in the Rue de Bombecul / Rue Basse Des Carmes
  • the Sonnets house
  • Market hall
  • Bridge over the Aveyron
  • Former spa building
  • "Le Querlys" Cinema

Of the former tanneries that were situated along the Bonnette river, there are only a few buildings.

Local sites

  • :fr: Fontalès prehistoric site
  • Roc d'Anglars viewpoint
  • Cirque du Bône

Individuals linked to the town

  • St Antonin (ca 453 - ca 506).
  • Raymond-Jourdain of St. Antoninus (12th century), knight and troubadour, born in the town to the viscounts family .
  • The La Valette-Parisot family is from the town.
  • Peter von Pennavaire (1680 – 1759), Prussian cavalry lieutenant general.
  • Cadène Lucien (1887 - 1958), painter inspired by the landscape of the town.
  • Pierre de Castelnau-Bretenoux (1298 - 1333), archdeacon of the town from 1317 .
  • Charles Domont (1901 - 1976), speleologist born in the town.
  • Joaquim Amat-Piniella (1913 - 1974), Spanish writer who spent his convalescence in the town after four years in the Mauthausen concentration camp.
  • Danielle Bonel (1919 - 2012), French actress, secretary and confidante of the singer Edith Piaf for 26 years.
  • Andre Laban, born 1928, underwater painter.
  • Thomas Merton lived here in the mid-1920s.

Amélie Galup (1856-1943)

Film location

The town was used as a location for the 2001 film Charlotte Gray, starring Cate Blanchett.

It was used as a location in the film The Hundred-Foot Journey starring Helen Mirren released in August 2014.

Notes

References

  • Romanesque and medieval sculpture of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val
  • Megaliths around Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val and in the surrounding area