Bastides are fortified[1] new towns built in medieval Languedoc, Gascony, Aquitaine, England and Wales[2][3] during the 13th and 14th centuries, although some authorities count Mont-de-Marsan and Montauban, which was founded in 1144,[4] as the first bastides.[5]
Some of the first bastides were built under Raymond VII of Toulouse to replace villages destroyed in the Albigensian Crusade. He encouraged the construction of others to colonize the wilderness, especially of southwest France. Almost 700 bastides were built between 1222 (Cordes-sur-Ciel, Tarn) and 1372 (La Bastide d'Anjou, Tarn).[6]
- ^ Bastide emphasises the "built" nature of the enterprise; in spite of the fortified connotations of Bastille, most of the present town walls were not built initially, though their strategic location was a consideration from the start, in part through contractual promises of future military support from the new occupants. See Adrian Randolph, "The Bastides of southwest France" The Art Bulletin 77.2 (June 1995, pp. 290-307) pp 291 note 11 and 303.
- ^ M.R.G. Conzen, 'The use of town plans in the study of urban history' in H.J. Dyos, The Study of Urban History, London, 1968, 126–27
- ^ A.E.J. Morris, History of urban form: before the industrial revolutions 3rd ed., London, 1994, 119–32
- ^ There is little consensus on whether Montauban should be counted as a bastide (Randolph 1995:291 note 11).
- ^ Bastide in the French Wikipedia, retrieved March 8, 2007.
- ^ Randolph 1995:290f.