Our Blog - Auch

Only about an hour west of Toulouse is Auch, the capital of the Gers department. Auch is a very old town, dating back to the Romans during their conquest of the area in 50 BC. At that time, it was settled by an Aquitanian tribe known to the Romans as the Ausci and the Romans renamed the town Augusta Ausciorum ("Augusta of the Ausci"). The common term "Augusta" was eventually dropped and the name evolved into the modern name of Auch. On the left bank of the Gers River, built up on a hill, sits the the medieval "upper city", and on a plain on the right bank is the "lower city". The lower town was devastated by floods several times (1897, 1952, and 1977).

Coming into town, you can see how the upper city sits up on a hill and you can easily see the two bell towers of the cathedral.

The Hotel de Ville, or City Hall, is at Place de la Republique and dates back to 1778. There is a nice fountain within the traffic circle that goes in front of the Hotel de Ville and, on the opposite side, the Cathedral.

The Gers department is known for several things, including foie gras, duck, geese, and chicken. We even see "chickens from Gers" on sale at the various butchers at the market. We stopped by the Tourist office in Auch and got a picture Tom and the goose! Here I want to actually single-out the Tourist office in Auch ... they really have done a great job for tourists. They have a circuit around town with information in French, English, and Spanish, as well as a tablet for kids that has another circuit with information (including audio) and a game where at various locations, you scan a picture of the site ... ALL FREE! The cathedral has information in something like 6 different languages.

The masterpiece of the city is Sainte-Marie's Cathedral, which was built between 1489 and 1680 on the site of a former Romanesque cathedral. It was one of the last Gothic cathedrals built in France and you can somewhat see this on the façade, as it is a fusion of Gothic, Renaissance, and Classical styles. You can see 3 horizontal divisions on the façade, with 3 large arches framed by Corinthian columns. It is dedicated to Saint Mary and you can see a statue of the Virgin Mary and child over the main door.

The cathedral was built following a Latin cross plan with main nave and aisles, along with 21 side chapels. It is built of local limestone and has typical Gothic structures, such as the large arches, tall windows possible by both vertical and flying buttresses, and cross-ribbed vaulting in the very high ceiling.

There are 2 organs: one tribune organ (located over the entry door) and the choir organ. The tribune organ is the older one, and more impressive. It was created by Jean de Joyeuse and finished in 1694 after 5 years of work. It sits in a lovely organ gallery, built in 1689 by the three architects, Barthélemy Duran, his son Pierre Duran, and Barthélemy Biamouret.

In the middle of the nave is a really lovely, carved and gilded pulpit.

Here you can see the altar in-use today, as well as the choir organ sitting at the top of the rood screen. Behind, which is the outer wall of the choir, you can see icons representing prophets and evangelists.

The cathedral has 2 different masterpiece's ... the windows and the choir. We'll start with the windows. There are 18 vibrant Renaissance stained glass windows in the ambulatory that were created by Arnaut de Moles between 1507 and 1513. They are often called the most beautiful from this period in France. Within the course of the ambulatory, the first, middle, and last windows represent Creation and Sin, the Cross of Christ, and the Resurrection. The ones in-between these present biblical characters: patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and Sibyls. Sibyls are women that the ancient Greeks believed were oracles and were said to have announced the coming of Christ. There are multiple Sibyls, each with a different story or location. The Libyan Sibyl (who was consulted by Alexander after his conquest of Egypt) and the Delphic Sibyl are shown in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. You may get sick of these ... but I think they are magnificent and so I have pictures of every window!

Here is the first one, represent Creation and Sin. From the top, you can see God above what looks like a bulls-eye, but indicates the creation of the world, then, moving right, the creation of Adam from the earth, and then the creation of Eve from Adam's rib. In the middle section, you can see Adam (on the left) and Eve (on the right) with the tree in the middle. It shows the serpent giving the poison apple to Eve and then you can see Adam grabbing his throat after eating the apple.

The next window, you can see Noah, the prophet Ezekiel, the apostle Peter, and the Erythraean Sibyl

The Chapel of Our Lady of Pity has a general theme of spiritual rebirth, and shows Abraham, Melchizedek, Paul, and the Samian Sibyl in the main section, and at the bottom shows (left to right) the sacrifice of Abraham, the conversion of St. Paul, and the nativity of Jesus.

These next few are in little round chapels and so you get 3 windows in each chapel. The Chapel of Saint-Anne has a general theme of crossing the desert. The left window shows Isaac, Samuel, and Hosea, the middle shows Jacob, Jonas, and Saint Mark, and the right shows Moses, the Libyan Sibyl, and Enoch.

The left window shows Joseph, the apostle Andrew, and Joel: the center shows Joshua, the European Sibyl, and Amos: the right shows Caleb, the apostle Bartholomew, and the prophet Obadiah. What I really love about the windows is when the sun is shining and the colors spread across the wall....

The left window shows the prophet Isaiah, the apostle Philip, and the prophet Micah. Center window (although really hard to see) has Marie, the apostle John, and Mary Magdalene. Right window has David, the apostle James the Major, and the prophet Azarias.

The chapel of compassion, again with only 1 window. Here, we have the apostle Matthias, Ezra the Scribe, the prophet Habakkuk , and the Tiburtine Sibyl.

The chapel of Our Lady of Hope, showing the prophet Elisha, Jude (or maybe Simon), the Delphic Sibyl, and the prophet Haggai.

Last but not least, the Chapel of Our Lady that shows the apostle Thomas, Christ, and Mary Magdalene.

This chapel is the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher, shows the early 16th century Entombment based on the Gospels of Matthew 27,55-61 and of John 19,38-42. The two old men, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, hold the shroud of Christ. Joseph of Arimathea holds the head of Jesus, Nicodemus holds his feet. Behind, Saint John on the left supports Mary, mother of Jesus, who is placed near the head. The Gospel of Matthew quotes three other women: Mary (mother of James the Minor and Joseph), Salome (the mother of the sons James the Greater and John of Zebedee), and Mary Magdalene. Next to the Virgin, we see a woman wearing the crown of thorns, then two holy women including Mary Magdalene at the right end. Above, the Throne of Glory: God the Father holds in his hands Christ on the cross, a dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit is between the Father and the Son. Two guards guard the tomb.

The second masterpiece here is the choir and it's stalls. There are 113 oak stalls that were created between 1510 and 1552. The oak was immersed in the Gers river for several years, then dried and sculpted.

As mentioned, there are 113 stalls, and each one has a different design ... there are over 1500 different motifs: biblical representations, lives of saints, mythology, fauna and flora. There is a mixture of characters from the Old and New Testaments as well as Sibyls (remember I mentioned these before in the windows) which is meant to show the parallelism between the prophecies and their realization by the coming of Christ. Within the choir decor, the decorations reflect the biblical, the mythological, and the life of Christ. The biblical depictions are on the 69 superior choir seats backs with canopies, all done in a flamboyant Gothic style. Mythology and life of Christ are depicted on the lower part of the stalls and in the landings between sets of stalls.

Here are a few examples. The 1st photo shows David holding the head of Goliath in his left hand, the 2nd is the Libyan Sibyl, and the 3rd is John the Baptist. The others are just to give more examples of how amazing these carvings are.

The main altar, within the choir, is a baroque Florentine style altar decorated with altar candles. The cross is said to have been used for Charles X's coronation. In front of the altar is a mosaic pavement.

The Old Grain Market was built on what used to be the Cordeliers Convent gardens between 1837 and 1843 and shows how important the city was in the context of grain and wine trading. It is decorated with "caduceus's", that indicate that commerce was the original purpose of the building. The caduceus is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology. It is a short staff entwined by two serpents, sometimes surmounted by wings. In Roman iconography, it was often depicted being carried in the left hand of Mercury, the messenger of the gods, and protector of merchants. I actually thought that the decoration indicated medical, but then looking it up, I found that the caduceus is often incorrectly used as a symbol of healthcare organizations and medical practice, particularly in North America, due to confusion with the traditional medical symbol, the Rod of Asclepius, which has only one snake and is never depicted with wings.

From the Old Grain Market to the New Grain Market, or just the Market Hall. There is still a market held here every few days, including being full on Saturday when we were there. It has large stone pillars and a high wooden roof.

The Monumental Staircase was a 19th century project to connect the two parts of the city in a more dignified manner than the old tunnel-like stairways that were there before. The design was inspired by the Italian Renaissance and the garden of Villa Garzoni in Collodi. It took multiple years to finish, but it ended up being quite a grand thing when it was finally done in 1863. It has a total of 374 steps, three terraces with gardens and fountains, Neoclassical balustrades edging the terraces, and a statue of Charles de Batz-Castelmore d’Artagnan, the real 17th-century musketeer who inspired the character of d'Artagnan in Alexandre Dumas’ novel "The Three Musketeers" as well as in "Twenty Years After" and "The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later".

On the first landing from the top is a contemporary sculpture entitled "l’Observatoire du temps" by the Catalan artist Jaume Plensa. It was installed on the ground of the landing in 1992 and is made up of words that evoke the biblical text of the Great Flood. In this case, it is referring to the catastrophic flood that shattered the city in 1977. At the top, you can get a great view of the lower city on the other side of the river.

At the top of the staircase is the Tour d'Armagnac. This 40 meter tall tower is an unmistakable fixture in the town. It was constructed in the 1300s and attached to the Episcopal Palace next to the cathedral. Originally designed to be a prison and a symbol of the might of the Bishop of Auch, it ended up being used as a warehouse for religious archives because there was a lack of offenders to imprison there. Well ... there was a lack of offenders until the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, when the tower was actually used as a prison until 1860.

Like with almost every village, town, and city in France, there is a Monument to the Dead. The monument in Auch, entitled "La Patrie", sits in a little square next to the Cathedral and the Tour d'Armagnac. The monument has a female figure representing a proud Republic, wearing the veil of mourning and holding a sword in her right hand (a sign of revenge) and a broken flagstaff (which indicates defeat) in her left. She looks towards the northeast, towards the front line of World War I. If you look closely at the back-right of the monument, you can see the corner of the fence is actually a 270 mm shell.

When the city was walled, there were two different sets of gates (exterior and interior). To enter the city, a person would first go through one of the multiple exterior or outer gates, and then also through one of the inner gates. This gate, the Port d'Arton, dates from the 14th or 15th century and is topped by a half-timbered and brick gatekeepers house.

On Pentitents Bleus Street sits the Caeser Tower, a 6th century that is the oldest structure still visible in the city. In the close-up of the base, you can see that it was constructed using materials from the first ramparts system at the end of the Late Roman Empire (4th-5th centuries).

The Eglise Saint-Orens is a Neo-Romanesque church dedicated to Saint Orens, who was one of the first bishops of Auch. It was built in the early 19th century, around 1825. It has 3 naves, large columns, and Romanesque doors and windows. But inside, we didn't really see much that was all that interesting (sorry).

This is a great example of medieval urban architecture. This half-timbered house resting on stone arcades was built in the 15th century. Originally, it would have had a ground-floor shop with living accommodations on the upper floors. You can see that each level has a different style in the half-timbering, all with brick infill. Half-timbering was used from the Middle Ages up until about the 19th century and had the advantage of being cheap, sound, solid, durable, and lightweight.

This house is next-door to the 15th century half-timbered house. Built entirely out of stone, it is an example of 16th century Renaissance architecture.

This small house was where, supposedly, Henri of Navarre (the future King Henry IV) stayed in 1578 with Queen Margot and Catherine de Medici. Another half-timbered house, it has a nice stone archway for the door with a small angel sculpture on each side. Inside, it has an impressive stone and wood staircase. Check out the balustrades, which are the same in both stone and wood. The little audio tour mentioned that the wood that was used was soaked in the river for a long time to make them rot-proof.