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Origin and history

La Tourasse is a historic building located in Rieux-Volvestre, Haute-Garonne, originally dating back to the 13th century as a tower. Transformed into a town hall after its acquisition by the city in 1517 from Marquefave's family, it embodied communal power until the Revolution. Its gascon name, meaning "big ruined tower", reflects its defensive past and progressive integration into civilian life.

From 1795, the building became a prison until the end of the 19th century, marking a dark period in its history. In the 20th century, he reinvented himself in cultural space: theatre in 1923, then cinema until the Second World War. Its architecture, modified in the 17th–15th centuries, preserves medieval elements such as the geminied windows and the town bell, while its curvilinear fronton portal bears witness to classic additions.

Enlisted for historical monuments in 1990, La Tourasse regained an artistic vocation in the 21st century. In 2011–2012, a theatre project and a regional festival (Towers collective art) were created, mixing dance, theatre and singing. The building, a communal property, today symbolizes the heritage resilience and adaptation of historic sites to contemporary needs.

Its rectangular plan, facing east-west, and its two floors once housed a barn on the ground floor and a common room upstairs, according to a 1742 text. The modifications for a theatre in Italian in the 20th century altered its medieval ordinance, but preserved traces such as the west chimney and the east bell, emblems of its multifunctional past.

The sources (Wikipedia, Monumentum) highlight its central role in local life, from communal administration to culture. The accuracy of its location (rue de Salles or rue du Théâtre) and its Insee code (31455) anchor La Tourasse in the Occitan heritage, between Haute-Garonne and Toulouse, while opening up prospects for its tourist and artistic future.

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