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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Saint-Clar Town Hall is located in the heart of the bastide of the same name, founded in 1274 in Lomagne, a historical region of Gascony. This monument, rebuilt in 1818, occupies a central square island on the town hall square. It replaces a medieval hall attested from the 16th century, associated with butcher shops and then with the common house. The current structure combines a wooden pole hall supporting a four-paned roof, and a one-storey municipal building topped by an added campanile around 1828. The poles, though worn, remain solid, and the whole illustrates the post-revolutionary civil architecture, combining market and administrative functions.

The bastide of Saint-Clar, created by a parage between the bishop of Lectoure and the Duke of Aquitaine, organized around this central square. The hall served markets less than communal meetings, reflecting its political role. The neighborhood, called new bastide, is distinguished by its regular grid, typical of gascones bastides. The present building, made of limestone and coated stone, preserves arcades on the ground floor and a porch access to the floor. Its campanile, decorated with committed columns and triangular frontons, houses a bell and clock, symbols of municipal authority.

Saint-Clar, nicknamed "French Tuscany" for its rolling landscape and argilo-calcar soils, was a strategic crossroads on the Arrats valley. The hall-city hall, classified as a Historic Monument in 1986, embodies the persistence of local institutions throughout the centuries. Its sober and functional architecture contrasts with neighbouring churches, such as the old church of St. Catherine (XIIth-15th centuries) or the neo-Gothic church of St. Clair (1857-1864), highlighting the heritage diversity of this rural town of 1,062 inhabitants.

The monument is part of an economic context marked by agriculture, including the white garlic culture, of which Saint-Clar is the capital. Weekly markets, including the market for garlic in the summer, are always the mainstay. The hall, although disused of its original trading function, remains a gathering place, reflecting community vitality. Its registration as the Historical Monuments in 1986 preserved this heritage, symbol of the Lomagnais identity.

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