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Origin and history

The village fort of Saint-Jean-d Its limestone courtines, 1.25 m thick and 10-15 m high, house 30 plots organized around a central mill. The church, built into the enclosure, serves as a watchtower, while two accesses – one protected by a square tower – control the entrances. The houses, backed by ramparts or grouped in the center, combine storage spaces, housing and vaulted cellars for livestock. Some preserve traces of the round road or neat architectural elements, such as chimneys or screw staircases added in the seventeenth century.

The site initially depended on the Cistercian abbey of Nonenque, founded around 1150 and protected by the Counts of Toulouse, then by the kings of France (in particular Philip the Bel in 1294). A contract of trimming in 1321 between the abbess and the king already mentions the "place of Saint John of Olcas". The Hundred Years War accelerated local fortifications: after the defeat of Poitiers (1356), the villagers were ordered to take over. In the 15th century, in the face of road incursions, the king and abbesse of Cazilhac decided in 1438 to fortify the hamlets of Olcas and Salabert, too far away for a common enclosure. The current fort, built between 1439 and 1445, symbolizes this post-conflict defensive and economic recovery.

From the 1950s onwards, the central mould fell to ruin, before a restoration project was launched in the 1970s. In 2007, the upper church hall and the "justice room" were renovated. The fort, partially private and communal, has been protected since December 2023 for its defensive elements, historical plots and facades. Its spatial organization reflects an autarchic medieval community, where agriculture, livestock and collective life revolved around the enclosure and the fortified church.

Located below the Larzac causse, 7 km from Roquefort, the village derives its name from the hamlet of Olcas, which dates back to the 12th century. The early church, probably built between the seventh and eighth centuries, overlooks a natural eminence. The fort illustrates the adaptation of the villages to the medieval crises, mixing religious, military and domestic functions in a still visible ensemble today.

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