A glossary for reading Monpazier

In south-west France, bastide commonly describes a planned settlement founded during the medieval period, often with an organised street and parcel pattern, a central market space and a chartered civic framework. Monpazier was founded in 1284. The term does not mean that every visible building dates from the foundation year.

Monpazier was founded through an arrangement between Edward I, king of England and duke of Aquitaine, and Pierre de Gontaud, lord of Biron. The original paréage contract is not known to survive; a notice written in 1769 summarises its substance. The agreement itself is documented, but exact clauses cannot be quoted from an original that has not survived.

The regional inventory describes this as a body of legal, administrative, fiscal and communal rules granted to the inhabitants. Monpazier’s original charter is not known to survive, although its application was reaffirmed by Louis XI in 1462 and Charles VIII in 1484.

In 1289, Monpazier received a détroit formed from the parishes of Capdrot, Marsalès, La Valade, Gaugeac and Saint-Cassien. The word identifies a documented jurisdictional territory here; it is not the modern English meaning of “strait”.

The regional dossier names Bertrand de Panissals as Monpazier’s early bayle and as the promoter initially selected at the foundation by the king-duke’s seneschal, Jean de Grailly. A simple English label such as “mayor” would misrepresent the office.

Monpazier’s inhabitants were represented by consuls; the regional dossier names five early members. Later records use jurade for the municipal body. These were historical institutions, not exact equivalents of the present mairie and council.

The 1365 enumeration gives Monpazier 315 feux, placing it among the six largest settlements in Périgord. A hearth count is not a headcount: it should not be multiplied into an exact population without a stated demographic method.

Monpazier’s municipality and regional inventory use carreyrou for the narrow passages running within or between the principal blocks. They reveal a secondary scale of access and circulation. Their documented role here does not establish a universal drainage function for every carreyrou.

Monpazier’s official conservation report distinguishes the structures at the four corners of Place des Cornières from the longer covered galleries. That local distinction explains the square’s name more precisely than using “arcade” for every sheltered edge.

The couverts project from private properties over the communal route around the market space. They form a connected sheltered perimeter, but the houses behind them remain individual buildings with separate histories and protection records.

The three fixed grain measures beneath the market hall are described locally as holding two, four and eight boisseaux. The Dordogne department’s interpretation uses 12.5 litres for the local boisseau; historic values varied by place and period, so that conversion must not be universalised.

Many protection notices identify an old parcel number rather than a modern street address. A cadastral reference is a legal and mapping identifier; matching it to a present doorway requires evidence and may be complicated by later division or consolidation.

The word may refer to the enclosing defensive system rather than one surviving wall. Monpazier retains three protected gate records and a partially protected eastern-rampart tower, while much of the former enclosure changed or disappeared.

The Ministry of Culture’s POP database publishes the official notices used in this guide. A notice can cover a whole building or only named elements such as a façade, gallery, roof, tower or the ground beneath an arcade.

Both are statutory forms of Monument Historique protection, recorded in English here as “classified” and “registered”. The precise category, date and protected scope are taken from each notice. Neither date is a construction date.

Mérimée notices concern architectural heritage such as Saint-Dominique or a town gate. Palissy notices concern movable objects such as the church’s choir stalls. Building and object histories must remain separate even when they share one location.

“Listed house” is often too vague. Around Place des Cornières, one record may protect a façade and covered gallery while another includes roofs and the ground beneath the galleries. The register repeats the official scope rather than treating every property as wholly protected.