Nogaro
The Vía Podiensis
Nogaro is a market town with full services and a distinctive dual identity: ancient pilgrimage stop and modern motorsport venue. Founded in 1054-1055 by Archbishop Austinde of Auch, who established it as a sauvete (a medieval sanctuary offering protection to settlers), the town hosted seven provincial councils between 1061 and 1315.
The Collegiale Saint-Nicolas was consecrated in 1060 and is one of the best-fortified churches in the region, equipped with buttresses, a walkway, and loopholes. The north portal preserves pure Romanesque work, and in 1995 remarkable 11th-century murals were discovered inside depicting the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence and Christ in Majesty -- a find significant enough to earn Historic Monument classification.
On the secular side, the Circuit Paul Armagnac, named after a local racing driver killed in 1962, hosts various motorsport events. The chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Bouit, in the nearby hamlet of Bouyt, has doubled as Notre-Dame des Pilotes since 1999 due to its proximity to the track. Legend has it an ox named Bouet uprooted a tree stump resembling the Virgin, prompting the chapel's construction.
Archbishop Austinde of Auch (1000-1068) was both the founder of Nogaro and a co-organizer of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. He purchased the land from the local lord Guillaume Raymond de Nogaro and consecrated the collegiate church himself in 1060. Romanesque capitals inside show the influence of the Basilique Saint-Sernin in Toulouse. The building suffered badly at the hands of Huguenots in 1569 and was repurposed as a warehouse during the Revolution, but the 1995 fresco discovery revealed that some of its oldest layers had survived beneath later plaster.
Accommodation in Nogaro.
| Gîte d´étape communal de Nogaro 12-15€ 26 |
| Gîte du Pied Levé 15€ 15 |
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