Cordes-sur-ciel

Perched on a rocky spur overlooking the Cérou valley, about twenty kilometres from Albi, Cordes-sur-Ciel is a bastide founded in 1222 by the Count of Toulouse Raymond VII. This fortified new town was created to repopulate the region after the Albigensian crusade. It became French in 1370 and reached its peak between the fourteenth and sixteenth century, thanks to trade, notably textiles and leather.

Rich merchants had Gothic houses with carved stone façades built here, which earn the town the nickname "City of a Hundred Ogives". You can still see fortified gates, such as the Ormeaux gate, remains of ramparts, the church of Saint-Michel largely of the thirteenth century and the covered market, whose well reaches about 113 metres in depth. The present name dates from 1947. The village is one of the Most Beautiful Villages of France.

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