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Origin and history

The Montreal City Gate, located along the south wall of the church, marks the end of a cross street connecting the central square with the rampart. Unlike the classical fortified doors, it is not surmounted by a tower, but is a simple drilling in the enclosure, built in average limestone apparatus. Its broken arch, with quasi-cubic harpsels, and triangular leaves of the piedroits suggest a dating between the late 13th and early 14th century. A series of crows under the roof attests to an ancient wooden hoard, now extinct, accessible from a door blocked in the western wall of the church.

This gate, the only preserved vestige of the medieval enclosure, was linked to the foundation of the bastide in 1255, although its precise construction probably dates back to the 13th and 14th century hinge. The consular accounts of the 15th century mention regular maintenance work (locks, repairs), confirming its prolonged use. The masonry, in solidarity with that of the church and its southwestern foothill, reinforces this chronological hypothesis. Listed in the Supplementary Inventory of Historic Monuments in 1925, it illustrates the civil defensive architecture of the Occitan bastides.

The enclosure of Montreal, planned in 1255, protected the new city according to an orthogonal plan typical of the bastides. The gate, without a tower, reflects a modest but efficient fortification, adapted to a secondary agglomeration. Its two-paned roof, covered with hollow tiles, and the absence of decor underline its utility character. Today, it is a communal property that bears witness to medieval urban planning and local stone construction techniques, characteristic of Gers and Occitanie.

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