Castle of Calmont d\' Olt

The Château of Calmont d' Olt is located in France, in the Département of Aveyron, on the commune of Espalion. Perched on a basaltic Dyke with 535 meters of altitude, it overhangs of 200 meters the town of Espalion and the valley of the Lot. It offers a panoramic sight on the mounts of Aubrac.

Étymologiquement, Calmont means “mount bald person” and of olt to Oltie - goddess of water refers, venerated in this basin of population which one names " country of Olt" - as with the Batch which runs downwards.

History

The castle, in its actual position, is an important stake in the history of the Castellologie of the medieval Rouergue. He testifies mainly to the architectural adaptation castrale to technological advances of the one hundred year old war. In 883 is mentioned for the first time, in the cartulaire of the abbey of Conques, the ministerium Calvomantese which then seems to constitute the military pole of a Viguerie Carolingien. The seigneuriale family, whose site probably éponyme will die out at the same time as Raimond de Calmont d' Olt bishop of Rodez in 1298, appears to have been a powerful feudal chalk-lining resulting from the administration caroligienne. Enjoying a strategic position and strong symbolic system on the valley the Batch and the town of Espalion, the castle of Calmont d' Olt probably always had a military vocation, it ordered the road active of Rodez towards the Aubrac and more largely crossing on the Batch of the axis Toulouse-Lyon. The low enclosure set up in XVe century and flanked of 8 Bastion S (towers open to the throat) reaffirms the role of Calmont d' Olt, during the one hundred year old war.

Chronology

800.883 First mention of Calmont d' Olt, in the cartulaire of the abbey of Conques
900.987 Dynasty of Capétiens
1000 1060 the vassal ones of Persia obtain freely from Hugues de Calmont d' Olt, their grounds for which they are indebted of a revenue or “taxable quota”
1060 Hugues de Calmont d' Olt gives to Conques the priory of Perse
1065 Bégon Ier de Calmont d' Olt (- 1092+)
the 1100 1100 lords of Calmont d' Olt charge a right of toll on the bridge of Espalion, and take part in the foundation of the hospital of Aubrac
1144 Guillaume de Calmont d' Olt gives to Cisterciens grounds which will make it possible to establish the abbey of Bonneval
1175 Bégon III of Calmont d' Olt (towards-1214+)
1200 1214 Bégon III of Calmont d' Olt takes part in the homage which Hugues pays, count de Rodez, in Simon IV of Montfort
1226 Louis VIII, king de France (father of Saint Louis), regains his capital after being gone to fight the Albigensians. Passing by Espalion, it receives liege homage of Guillaume de Calmont (naked head, a knee with ground, without sword neither girdles nor spur)
1266 First communal charter which regulates the relationship between the town of Espalion and the lord of Calmont d' Olt
1278 Raimond de Calmont d' Olt, bishop of Rodez, and lord of Calmont d' Olt poses the first stone of the cathédrale
1298 Raimond de Calmont d' Olt dies, fine of the line of Calmont d' Olt
1298 Pierre Ier Pellet lord of Ales, inherits the baronnie of Calmont d' Olt
1300 1315 Hugues III of Castelnau-Bretenoux baron de Calmont d' Olt (- 1350+)
1337 Beginning of the One hundred Year old War, Philippe VI confiscates Guyenne, Edouard III of England asserts the throne of France
1341 Espalion provides men for the war of Gascogne
The 1348 Black Death decimates a third of the population of Rouergue
1350 Jean Ier de Castelnau baron de Calmont d' Olt (- 1395+)
1356 the “Englès” invest the town of Espalion
1360 Treaty of Brétigny which yields Rouergue to Anglais
1364 Ransack of Espalion by truck drivers (roughneck soldiers of Arnaud de Cervole)
1395 Pons Ier de Castelnau Caylus baron de Calmont d' Olt (- 1419+)
1400 1419 Antoine de Castelnau Caylus baron de Calmont d' Olt (- 1465+)
1465 Jean II of Castelnau Caylus baron de Calmont d' Olt (- 1505+)
1500 1505 Jacques de Castelnau Caylus baron de Calmont d' Olt (- 1514+)
1514 Jean III of Castelnau Caylus baron de Calmont d' Olt (- 1530+)
1530 Pierre Guilhem de Castelnau Clermont Lodève, baron de Calmont d' Olt (- 1537+)
1533 Passage de François Ier with Espalion
1537 Gui I de Castelnau Clermont, chamberlain of François 1st, seneshal of Carcassonne, baron de Calmont d' Olt (- 1544+)
1544 Gui II de Castelnau Clermont, baron de Calmont d' Olt, seneshal of Toulouse in 1566 (- 1580+)
1581 Alexandre de Castelnau Clermont, baron de Calmont d' Olt
XVIIIe century the castle would have been the subject of a temporary occupation by forgeries monnayeurs
1800 1833 Engraving of Bichelois showing the castle in ruin and its agro-pastorale

Today

In 1987 the castle registered with the monuments hitoric and mainly ruined is repurchased by Mr. Thierry Plume who renovates it gradually and the fact of classifying in 1992. Starting from this date and with the assistance of the Buildings of France, regional service of archeology and thanks to the help the voluntary ones which assist during the summers the team of the castle, the site reappears of its ashes gradually… in 2006, new elements of dating, the release of a room and the discovery by the archeologists, of a Romance keystone in the " Longe" turn; , allows to locate its construction at the 11th century (civil Romanesque architecture).

Tourism

The castle belongs to the Route of the Lords of Rouergue which gathers 23 castles, and obtained in 1997 the Trophée of Cultural tourism in the Midday-Pyrenees .

The development of the site is done around the topic of the Poliorcétique. Machines of war were reconstituted life size. The spectators can assist, all the year, with projectile jets with;

Bastille of seat of XVe with bombards S
Couillard of XVe
Trébuchet of XIVe
Pierrière of Petrus de Eboli of XIIe
Pierrière of the head office of Toulouse of XIIIe

The visitors are also invited to take part of other animations (shootings in the arc, with the crossbow, tournaments of swords (quintaine), manufacture of a Coat of mail, a bookstore on the topic of the Middle Ages is at disposal. All the funds resulting from the tourist activity are reinjected in the site (employment, construction materials, research)

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