Lectoure
Commune in Occitania, France
Lectoure (French pronunciation: [lɛktuʁ]; Gascon: Leitora [lejˈtuɾɔ]; Latin Lactora) is a commune in the Gers department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France.
It is located 32 km (20 mi) north of Auch, the capital of the department, 30 km (19 mi) south of Agen and approximately 76 km (47 mi) northwest of Toulouse.
In 1473, the seneschal, the crown's agent of order, was created for the county of Armagnac. The building out of which the seneschal operated, Seneschalcy of Armagnac, was built in the commune of Lectoure. The position/building remained active until the French Revolution, in which it was abolished and abandoned by 1835.
01Geography
The village is located on the right bank of the Gers, which flows north through the western part of the commune. The river Auroue forms part of the commune's southeastern and northeastern borders.
02History
Lectoure was a prehistoric oppidum, capital of Lactorates. Barbarian invasions forced residents to raise the walls and make Lectoure a stronghold for centuries. The town became the capital city of the Earldom of Armagnac in 1325, ruled by a powerful family descended from the ancient Dukes of Gascony, who held court at Lectoure. In 1473 Cardinal Jean de Jouffroy besieged the town on behalf of Louis XI. and after its fall put the whole population to the sword. In 1562 it again suffered severely at the hands of the Catholics under Blaise de Montluc.
03Population
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
|---|---|---|
| 1968 | 3,950 | , |
| 1975 | 3,790 | −0.59% |
| 1982 | 3,923 | +0.49% |
| 1990 | 4,034 | +0.35% |
| 1999 | 3,933 | −0.28% |
| 2007 | 3,771 | −0.52% |
| 2012 | 3,753 | −0.10% |
| 2017 | 3,664 | −0.48% |
| 2023 | 3,670 | +0.03% |
| Source: INSEE | ||
04Sites of interest
Lectoure has been designated as a "town of art and history" (French: Villes et Pays d'Art et d'Histoire) by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication since 1985. The 12th-16th century former Lectoure Cathedral is a national monument. The town hall was built between 1676 and 1682 by bishop Hugues de Bar.
05Way of St. James
Lectoure is a town on the Via Podiensis, one of the three major French arms of the Way of St. James. This route is followed by those making the pilgrimage from Le Puy by way of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. Pilgrims arrive at Lectoure after Miradoux and next pass through Marsolan and La Romieu.
06Cuisine
Locally produced Armagnac and foie gras are available and popular delicacies.
07Notable people
- Pierre Charron
- Pierre Feuga, writer, translator
- Pey de Garros
- Joseph Lagrange
- Jean Lannes
- Paul Noël Lasseran
- Antoine de Roquelaure
- Aurélie Soubiran, Princess Ghika (1820-1904), writer.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Lectoure”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Lectours west2.jpg by Ww2censor, Public domain
- Map commune FR insee code 32208.png by Map data (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA Legend • Shape files infrastructure: railway, highways, water: all originally by OpenStreetMap contributors. Status december 2011 • Label and Insee code commune: from Geofla (note that commune boundaries are also available under free license at geofla, but not near acceptable quality due to extreme simplification!) • Data for exact commune* and department boundaries: derived via osm download geofabrik.de and osm2pgsql, OpenStreetMap contributors. • Data for landuse: OSM / Corine land cover, 2006 ([1]) • Mentioned sources combined and exported for each commune using a script by Michiel1972 *note: shown commune boundaries are from OSM dump May 2012; at that time about 90% complete, CC BY 2.0
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