Monuments
and Historical Sites
Villefranche de Lonchat is an English bastide. One of its two
churches and the town hall building are listed on the
Supplementary Inventory of Historical Monuments. There are
various wells and wash-houses to be visited including one
which was renovated in 2003, the weighing scales situated on
the old fairground, the cemetery lodge house which was also
restored in 2003 and an amazing view from the old town walls
over the ruined Château de Gurson along the valley right to
the château of St Michel de Montaigne. The first floor of the
town hall houses a local history museum.
The Museum
The museum, created in 1939, covers different periods of
mankind’s occupation of the area from prehistoric times, through
the building of the bastide in 1285 to the modern day. The
collection is housed on the first floor of the town hall
building.
A variety of everyday objects are on display including tools,
furniture, clothing, pottery manuscripts and 16th -century
books.
The museum is run by the « Friends of the Museum » ; recent
gifts to the museum include a medical room and a small
collection of toys. A temporary, themed exhibition is mounted
annually for the benefit of the public and of local schools. The
municipal museum is open all year round by appointment (05 53 80
77 25 : town hall secretary) as well as for the « Museum
Springtime » event and National Heritage days.
Notre Dame
Church
Visitors to Villefranche de Lonchat are inevitably astonished
to discover that the parish church is built 400m outside the
village itself. The reason for this is simple and forms the
basis of Villefranche’s history. The parish of Lonchat was
founded on the ruins of a Gallo-Roman villa which was situated
500m from the church on a south-facing hillside down which ran
a stream. A person named « Lupius » was succeeded down the
centuries by his name in the form of « Lupiac ». When, over
the course of time, Christianity spread through the
countryside, a private oratory was built at Lupius although no
trace of it remains, having doubtless been destroyed by the
Normans.
During the 11th
and 12th centuries Romanesque churches sprung up all over the
area, at St Martin de Gurson, Carsac, Minzac, Montpeyroux and
Lupiac, whose name became over several centuries, Lopchac and
then Louchat.
Lopchac church, dedicated to Our Lady existed as early as the
11th century as is established by various chartularies of the
Abbey of Sauve Majeur. Known as the « big church to distinguish
it from the one erected inside the bastide itself » it stands on
a rocky plateau and has a crypt to counter-balance the uneven
lie of the land.
It is built in the Gothic style of the south-west which was a
transitional style between Romanesque and Gothic. The walls are
thick and supported by huge buttresses. The short, sturdy belfry
sits astride the western bay to the left of the central nave and
forms the church’s facade. The church is inscribed on the
Supplementary Inventory of Historical Monuments.
Annual Events
• Christmas market from the beginning of December.
• March carnival
• Fireworks and cycling race on 15 August.
