History
The area has been occupied for over 10,000 years, as evidenced by the archaeological discoveries at the nearby Upper Palaeolithic (Magdalenian) site of Fontalès.
The town is named after Antoninus of Pamiers, who brought Christianity to the Rouergue. He was martyred c. 305 when, following this success, he then tried to convert Pamiers, his home town in the Pyrenees. His remains were believed to have been interred on the site of the town, an abbey was founded in the 8th century[a] by Festus, the local ruler of what was then known as Vallis Nobilis.
[b]
The abbey was expanded by the Benedictines in the 11th century, and it was finished around 1150. By the end of the 12th century it passed into the control of Augustinian Canons Regular.[c] The monastery was destroyed in 1570 during the wars of religion when the church was burned down, the exercise of the Catholic religion was outlawed, and the city became one of the strongholds of the reformists. Today there are only a few surviving fragments, but corbels possibly from the former abbey's collegiate church adorn several buildings.
[d]
Saint-Antonin had one of the first hospitals in the region, founded by the 8th century. Reformists also burned down that building in 1575.
From the 9th century, Saint-Antonin was ruled by one of the first nobles in the area to hold the title of viscount. They were powerful lords of Rouergue, but vassals of the count of Toulouse. The last independent viscount ceded all his rights to the king in 1249.[3]: 81
Saint-Antonin reputably has the oldest town hall in France. The first recorded mention of the "New House" - which served as a lordly residence and court house - dates from 1155. In 1212 it was bought by the consuls (town councillors) and referred to as La Maio del Cossolat. The consuls had vacated it by 1791 and it now houses a local museum.
The former castle of Vallette (castrum vallatum) was built in 1180 by Fortuné de Valletta, son of viscount Archambauld, who died in the Holy Land in 1190. This castle was located on top of a steep cliff overlooking the Aveyron, its ruins were still visible in the nineteenth century, when it was also known as the Château de Bône. (The Vallette family gave their name to the Maltese capital Valletta, which was founded by the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Jean Parisot de Valette.)
The Canal du Bessarel was constructed in the 13th century to service a water-mill and other industries such as the tannery, whose site remains.
The Albigensian Crusade
In 1209, the viscounts of Saint-Antonin embraced Catharism. Pope Innocent III authorised a crusade against the Cathars, and the bishop of Puy placed Saint-Antonin under siege. The inhabitants resisted for some time, but were finally forced to capitulate and pay a considerable ransom. The Cathars took control again a short time later, but in 1211 Simon de Montfort seized it again. A little later, Sant-Antonin and nearby Guépie sought the protection of the count of Toulouse, sponsor of the Albigeois, who installed Adhemar de Jourdain as governor. Montfort, indignant at these frequent infidelities, marched to Saint-Antonin from Albi, determined to retake it permanently. The bishop of Albi, who led the vanguard of the army, arrived before him and urged the inhabitants to submit. Montfort set up camp outside the town and was attacked that evening by the inhabitants. The sergeants of his army repelled them and attacked the town, without the participation of their generals. After an hour's fighting, they had taken three small outer towers. The inhabitants started to flee through a gate opposite the camp. The crusaders pursued them and helped themselves to everything they came across. At midnight, viscount Pons, judging that the town would inevitably be taken the next day, sent Montfort a conditional offer to surrender, which was refused. The crusaders entered the town early next morning and sacked the place. Pons, the governor and several other knights were taken to Carcassonne, and locked in a tiny cell.
Louis VIII resolved to march in person against the Cathars in 1226, and sent Hebrard, a knight templar, to take possession of the town on his behalf and receive the oath of allegiance of the inhabitants. The oath was sworn by the twelve consuls, the prior and all residents over fifteen years old. After taking the oath, they begged Sir Hébrard not to tell anyone, lest the count of Toulouse find out before the arrival of the King and come to ravage their lands. They also asked him to intercede for them with the cardinal legate, who accompanied the King, to remove the interdict over the town. The King, the following January, sent letters of guarantee to Paris confirming the town's customs and privileges.[e]
In 1229, when Louis IX made peace with Raymond VII of Toulouse, he wrote to the various lords of Rouergue, who had sworn fealty to his father, and ordained them to take an oath of loyalty to "his dearest cousin and vassal Raimond, count of Toulouse", thus ending the conflict.
The Hundred Years War
During the Hundred Years' War the Plantagenets first seized Saint-Antonin in about 1345, but the count of Armagnac, governor of the Languedoc drove them out. In 1352, the Plantagenets took the town again, and from here ravaged the area of Toulouse.
Armagnac undertook the reconquest of Saint-Antonin, but his enemy the Count of Foix made raids into the lands of Armagnac and forced him to give up for a time. He resumed the siege in the following February, and as it dragged on he entrusted it to Arnaud de Pressac, marshal of his forces, so that he could travel to Najac where he had summoned the representatives of the towns in the Languedoc to raise funds. The steward of Carcassonne pledged ten sous per hearth, which was worth 72,000 livres, Beaucaire also provided 24,000 deniers d'or à l’écu, and the town of Nîmes gave 400 gold crowns, provided that the number of its consuls could be increased to six.
These funds, combined with those of the stewards of Rouergue and Quercy who also contributed, formed a much larger sum than was necessary for this enterprise. Armagnac immediately positioned himself before Saint-Antonin, resolved to make every effort to drive out the English. He ignored a six-month truce agreed between France and England with effect from 1 March 1353. But all his efforts, and the funds he had raised in the lands under his control, became useless, because of the peace negotiated between the two courts, and the English remained masters of Saint-Antonin for the next several years.
In 1382, Toulouse and several other towns, including Saint-Antonin, revolted against the duke of Berri, the King's commander in Languedoc. Immediately the capitouls of Toulouse sent Saint-Antonin an armed garrison under the pretext of defending them against the English, who still occupied nearby Laguépie. The King's troops laid siege to the town once again; but in 1388, they paid 240 francs in gold to avoid punishment for joining with the rebel communities.
The French Wars of Religion
When religious fanaticism rekindled in Rouergue in the 16th century, as a result of the new doctrines of Luther and Calvin, Saint-Antonin was one of the first to declare for the Protestants, and it quickly became one of their main bastions. It was at the center of their meetings, of their deputations to the King, and of their leadership. If an expedition were to be undertaken against Catholics in the neighbourhood, it was the Protestants of Saint-Antonin who directed and executed the enterprise.
When 70 or so Protestants of nearby Gaillac assembled in 1561 for the Lord's Supper, the inhabitants of the district of Orme, backed by a company of regular troops, took them prisoner. They took them to the terraces of Saint-Michel Abbey, above the banks of the Tarn, where a labourer named Cabrol, dressed in the cloak and hat of a local judge and assisted by a lawyer named Pousson, condemned them to be thrown down from the terrace into the river, telling them to eat fish since they had not fasted during Lent. Boatmen in the river battered to death those who were able to swim. In the meantime, the remaining Protestants in the town were massacred. In 1568 Protestants from Saint-Antonin resolved to take revenge. They gathered their brothers from Millau and Montauban, and seized Gaillac, looting and killing indiscriminately, and setting fire to the neighbourhood where Catholics were taking refuge. Cabrol was taken to the rocky terrace of the abbey and thrown into the river and they hanged Pousson. This is just an example of the excesses that were committed in these times of fanaticism, during which Saint-Antonin felt the effects more than once.
The collegiate church was destroyed sometime after 1614, and Saint-Antonin was again besieged in 1621 by Louis XIII in person. He was camped outside Montauban, which was controlled by Protestants, when he learned that Saint-Antonin was sending 1,200 men to rescue the town. He arrived at Saint-Antonin on 13 June and forced it to surrender. Twelve inhabitants were put to death, all the fortifications and walls were destroyed, and the town was ordered to pay a sum of 50,000 crowns to avoid being pillaged.
Subsequent developments
Louis XIV renamed the town Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val and financed major improvements. It became an important supplier of leather and linen. In 1681, Protestants were excluded from politics and the town council, but the town still has a Protestant temple. After this period, the town gradually lost its privileges and its influence declined. For a while after the French Revolution, the town was renamed Libre-Val, but soon reverted to Saint-Antonin.
On the creation of the French departments, Saint-Antonin was incorporated into the Department of Aveyron, but was seconded to the Tarn-et-Garonne Department in 1808 by Napoleon. In 1962, Noble-Val was appended to the town's name once more.
Today, Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val still has an authentically medieval layout, the streets and many facades of the town centre having hardly changed over 800 years. It features a range of stone arched and half-timbered houses and covered walkways listed in the French national heritage records.
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