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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The fort house of the Farguettes, located in Crespinet in Tarn (Occitanie), is a 14th century building classified as a historical monument in 2006. Built in a meander of the Tarn, it is distinguished by its unusual location below a rocky bar, probably due to existing underground galleries serving as refuge. These galleries, with still enigmatic functions, could explain the name Farguettes (small forges), although no trace of ore was confirmed on site.

The site was first mentioned in 1396 as Raymond Gasc, a local nobleman. The Gasc family, powerful in the Tarn Valley for at least the thirteenth century, established a seigneury associated with extensive feudal rights. The archives reveal their involvement in regional conflicts, particularly against the English and in the struggles for the bishopric of Albi. The castle, designated as Fargas fort in medieval texts, housed seigneurial acts from 1434–36, attesting to its administrative and military role.

In the 16th century, the strong house passed into the hands of the families of Castelnau, Valéry and then Rotolp, the latter embracing Protestantism. Abel de Rotolp, lord of the Fargutes at the beginning of the seventeenth century, resides there after the destruction of his other castle by the Catholics. The local tradition evokes a visit by Henry IV to the Fargutes, where he planted two orms of tolerance in tribute to Abel, a moderate Protestant figure. However, the Rotolp family gradually abandoned the site in favour of Castres, a Protestant intellectual center, reducing the house to an agricultural estate.

In the 18th century, the vicar François Cammas acquired the castle in 1751, then in ruins, and undertook costly work to restore it. Ambitioning a seigneurial title, he bought feudal rights in the region, but his claims were hampered by the Revolution. The castle, which was used as a hiding place for a refractory priest in 1798, suffered degradation (marking of coats of arms). After 1877, he moved to the family of Lapanouse, then declined on a farm before being restored in the 21st century, obtaining the Heritage Foundation label.

Architecturally, the strong house preserves its medieval characteristics: three round towers, an arased square dungeon, archeries, and a Renaissance portal topped by a steep edge. The central courtyard, surrounded by galleries, gives access to a staircase with screws and to classified undergrounds, whose function (refuge, mines ?) remains debated. Recent work aims to regain its original aspect, while preserving its environment classified for its authenticity.

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