Distance: 0,8 km
Departure: GENSAC
Loop
City/village discovery trail
History
Campaigns
walk
Duration: 45mn
Difficulty : Very easy
This short route allows you to discover the charm of a small town of yesteryear.
Equipments & services
Others
- Animals accepted: yes
Points of interest
Church of Our Lady
Your itinerary
GENSAC
This short route allows you to discover the charm of a small town of yesteryear.
1
Starting point
From Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, take rue Graulhet, to the left of the town hall and stop at the first intersection to observe the corbelled pulpit of the old city ditches.
2
Calvin's pulpit
From the middle of the XNUMXth century, a large part of the population embraced the Reformed religion. It is said that the faithful come in large numbers and from afar to hear the sermons given from the top of this pulpit. It would have been built in the XNUMXth century. Calvin, French theologian, important reformer and pastor emblematic of the Protestant Reformation of the XNUMXth century, preached in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande. He sent his ministers to preach in the countryside to convert the Catholic population to the Protestant religion. Legend has it that Calvin preached from this pulpit.
3
Course of the Ditches
On your right is the Cours des Fossés. By this street, you enter the fortified town: the castrum. Imagine that at the end of the street, facing the Croix Saint-Jean, in the square of the modern houses, two two-storey towers flanked a strong door with a drawbridge. It was the entrance to the fortress. A fortified castle stood at the northern tip of the castrum. Few vestiges of this castle remain today (poster and pieces of towers but not accessible, on a private site). To the south of the town, the defense system was completed by another castrum: the castle of Valens. The castrum housed up to 1400 soldiers at the end of the Hundred Years War. Take the rue du Château in front of you. This street is in place of the old city walls. It goes up, as its name suggests, to the Château de Gensac, which no longer exists. It was restored by the Companions and respects the standards of the Middle Ages.
4
painted door street
A few steps away, the first street on your right is rue Portepeinte or Portepinte. It included several taverns where you could go and drink a beer or wine. In this street, you can see a holed stone. It could accommodate a torch which signaled the opening of the tavern in the evening. During the day, this same stone was used to tie a horse or donkey to it.
5
Convent Street
Continue to follow rue du Château and stop at the intersection with the next street, rue du Couvent. This street takes the name of a former convent which retains a base from the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries. This building is now a private owner.
6
Church Square
Take the rue du Château to arrive in front of the Notre Dame church. You are on the tip of the rocky outcrop, where the castle used to be. We can still see the postern of the castle. This rocky outcrop, fortified by the castle to the north of the village, provided effective protection against invasions. The castle completely disappeared after the Revolution. Its stones have allowed the construction of many residences. The rocks surrounding the castle are sheer and quite high. At their base, extends a terraced plateau that goes around the old town. This natural stratigraphy of the terrain gave the town great security, and before the appearance of artillery, the village was only attackable from the south side.
7
The church
After being destroyed by the Protestants, the church was definitively rebuilt at the end of the 1897th century in the neo-Gothic style. It was rebuilt where the Romanesque church once stood (of which the base of the apse remains). The choir of the building is remarkable: it is made up of a rich wall decoration created in XNUMX by the Bordeaux painter Léon Millet. Another remarkable element in the church: an oil on canvas, from the end of the XNUMXth or the beginning of the XNUMXth century, which represents Saint-Jacques.
8
Old hall
Go back on your way by taking the rue du temple, then turn right into the rue de l'église. You arrive at the place of the old hall. Here stood a small market in the Middle Ages. From the XNUMXth century, the square was the economic center of the village: market, stalls, acrobats... Imagine the atmosphere! It was supplied by traveling merchants. On the ground, the shield of Gensac which represents an eagle's paw where one can read the motto of the city reproduced on the ground: Gens acutat tenet, which can be translated as "people who resist", "the people who have courage.
9
Barn
Further on, at the intersection with Rue Torte, there is a barn with putlog holes for the pigeons. This was a sign of the owner's wealth. Continue in the rue de l'église to catch up with the Cours des Ditches, then turn right. Proceed to the end of the street and turn right to return to the town hall square.
10
Ruet Pardaillan
Back on the square, between the “cat house” and the half-timbered house known as the “baker’s house”, is Ruet Pardaillan. Legend has it that the famous Pardaillan, great duelist and renowned captain charged by the king to pacify Guyenne, was assassinated in Gensac in 1621. Since the summer of 2006, the municipality has thanked this local glory by baptizing a ruet (small street) named Pardaillan. This street is the one by which the only survivor of the fatal ambush at Pardaillan was able to escape into the countryside.