An execution on Monpazier's main square

Oh, the nice and quiet walled town... Come on, follow me! Welcome in Monpazier! A bastide ("walled town")? Oh, it's a fortified town founded in the 13th century in southern France, in order to stop the English's advance during Hundred Years War.

Here, no more narrow streets, typical of the Middle-Ages! We have a square plan, regular, with a square surrounds by arcades, in the middle. All around this, rectilinear streets.

But let's get back to the point. Mont Pazier, in the Middle-Ages, was located on a spur, overlooking and watching the river's upstream and downstream water.

It was an English king, duke of Guyenne, Edward I, who founded the little city in 1285, with lord of Biron, Pierre de Gontaud. Monpazier became English after the treaty of Brétigny in 1360, then French 9 years later.

Plundered, damaged during the Hundred Years War, the little city became Protestant believer in 1557: they followed their neighbour, Biron castle (a real Protestant bastion)!

Anyway, plunderings and slaughters took place again... At the end of the 16th century, popular revolts took place in South West France, the insurrection des Croquants ("Croquants' riot").

Monpazier wasn't an exception! In this climate of civil war, did you know that a man called Buffarot, a weaver, supported those Croquants? He was arrested by duke of Epernon and broke on the wheel on the main square of Monpazier, in 1637!

In the 18th century, king and duke of Biron, with priest Laborie de Campagne created a hospital and a royal spinning mill, in the village.