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Origin and history

The Church of Saint-Jacques de Villefranche-de-Rouergue is a Gothic building built in 1455 to complete the Hospital Saint-Jacques, thanks to donations and public quests. It was mentioned in 1339 as a hospital church, but its reconstruction in the 15th century marked its attachment to the fraternity of the pilgrims of Santiago before 1585. Historical sources (E. Cabrol) indicate that it was alternately managed by the black penitents and the brotherhood between 1609 and 1664.

In 1752, the adjacent hospital became the house of Mercy, run by the Sisters of Charity. The French Revolution led to its decommissioning in 1792: sold as a national property, it was transformed into a dwelling and then into a deposit. In 1826, an individual acquired a garage. Recently bought by the municipality, it is now destined to become an information centre on the roads of Compostela.

The church illustrates the religious and social changes of the Rouergue: first place of worship and reception of pilgrims, it undergoes the tremors of secularization before returning to a vocation linked to its jacquarian history. Its Gothic architecture and its hospitable past make it a rare testimony of medieval networks of charity and devotion, today preserved as a historical monument inscribed in 2003.

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