The
bastide itself with its
right angles and straight roads is well worth a visit.
It was planned along regular lines and all its streets
converge in the central square. Molières was never surrounded
by arcaded houses and only the Bayle House is raised above its
arches.
It is, nonetheless, a delightful village with the added charms
of a Gothic church and the ruins of a fortress.
The Porch
The Château Ruins
Construction begun on a perfectly square, fortified château in
1316 to protect the village; today only the walls and part of
the tower still survive.
The Rib-Vaulted House
Part of a large house formerly belonging to a priest who
donated it to the town to house the poor. The rectory that
became the town hall was built on this site in the nineteenth
century.
Church
A Gothic
Church
The thirteenth-century fortified church built by the
Plantagenets is Gothic in style with ribbed vaults and a
massive bell tower protecting the north facade. Battlemented
parapets, destroyed in the nineteenth century, joined the
south and north towers which were used as reserves in case of
attack. The church was left in ruins by the Wars of Religion
and the process of restoration only undertaken in the
nineteenth century.
Notre –Dame Street
The same name as the church dedicated to Our Lady, this wide
streets, similar to Sainte Catherine street, which is parallel
to it, is one of the Bastide’s carters’ streets.
The Charnel House
At the corner of one of the oldest houses in the village, is a
salt tank or “charnel house”.
