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Origin and history

The former command office of Saint-Antoine, known as the Castle, was founded in the 12th century as an annex to the command office of Toulouse, on the road from Agen to Lectoure. The Antonins, a hospital order created in 1090, established a hospital to treat the needy and a Romanesque chapel, whose doorway remains today. Thanks to donations, notably that of the widow of Gaillard d'Ascot in 1204, the site was enlarged in the 13th century: the church was rebuilt, the extended hospital, and the fortified village with ditches and doors equipped with drawbridges.

In the 17th century, the hospital, which was less and less frequented, fell into ruins. In 1776 Pope Pius VI abolished the order of the Antonins, and their property was transferred to the Knights of Malta (Hospitaliers of St John of Jerusalem) in 1777. In the Revolution, the property became national, and the hospital disappeared. The site now preserves a house dating from the 16th-17th centuries, redesigned in the 19th century, as well as the remains of the medieval commandory, inscribed in historical monuments in 1972.

The commander's office played a key role on via Podiensis, the road to Santiago de Compostela, where pilgrims crossed the Arrats via a barrage bridge that is now partially destroyed. The Antonins monitored this strategic passage, combining spiritual assistance, care for the sick (especially those suffering from the "evil of the ardent", or ergotism), and traffic control. The site thus illustrates the intersection between pilgrimage, hospital care and religious power in the medieval southwest.

The church of Saint-Antoine, registered in 1963, has distinctive elements such as the "tau" (T) antonin on its arch keys and a Mozarabian door with three windows. An arm-shaped reliquary dedicated to the patron saint of the Antonines was venerated. The north fortified gate, probably dating from the late 13th century, recalls the defensive aspect of the site, both a place of charity and protection on a major commercial and religious road.

After the Revolution, the site lost its hospital vocation and was partially reused or abandoned. In the 19th century, architectural changes altered some buildings, but the medieval structure remains identifiable. Today, the commandery and its church form a rare heritage complex, bearing witness to the history of hospital orders in Occitanie and their integration into medieval pilgrimage and assistance networks.

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