The most striking features of our architecture are the circular villages, a rich Romanesque religious architecture, private medieval mansions and classical ones, wine growers' houses and castles, shepherds' shelters and lime-kilns.
Art & History - From one place to another
THE MEDIEVAL VILLAGE
The round shaped villages are not rare in Languedoc.
Caux, Nizas and Saint-Pons-de-Mauchiens are some examples of these villages.
The church played an important role as far as this circular plan was concerned, because the pre-existent church walls around which the villages were built were often circular. Hadly noticeable in Languedoc, this role was really obvious in Catalonia and Lauragais. The prominent feudal families also played a key role in the development of these circular villages.
THE RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE
The most ancient churches of the Pays de Pézenas date back to the 12th century.
This Romanesque architecture was first and foremost the art of the masons. The major change in architecture was the extension of the use of the vault to the whole building.
The 12th century was also marked by the use of monumen-tal sculpted decors.
Lower Languedoc remained faithful to the models of the 12th century for quite a long time; even when the Gothic style was thriving all over France, this region still continued to build only Romanesque buildings covered with cross-ribbed vaults.
The counter reformation was marked by the settling of new religious orders and the reconstruction of previously destroyed convents. The sobriety of the outside part of the churches contrasted with the wealth of the inner decors. The main building site in the 18th century was the reconstruction of Collegiate Church Saint John in Pézenas. In the 19th century many rural chapels were built in the Pays de Pézenas.
THE AGRICULTURAL ESTATE
Pézenas castles were built in the 19th century thanks to the income of the wine industry.
The architecture and decors of the rooms were either in the Renaissance, Louis XIII, classical or more rarely in the neo medieval style. If the architecture of the buildings did not change, there are only rare intact examples left of such decors today.
In these estates the park was very important.
The building of large service quarters was often achieved by the architect who built the castle so as to give an archi-tectural unity to the buildings.
Parcours-spectacle en 5 salles, qui vous immergera dans l'ambiance du XVIIe siècle à la découverte du tourbillon de la vie de Molière
