The Quercy (in Occitan Carcin kɔrˈʃi ) is a province of France whose extent corresponded to the area of influence of the antique quoted of the Cadurques ( Cadurci ) having for capital Cahors. Quercy joined together the current department of the Lot, the northern half of the Tarn-et-Garonne, some communes of the Dordogne and Aveyron.

In 1790, Quercy becomes the department of the Batch. An important part of white Quercy was detached of this department during the creation of the Département of Tarn-et-Garonne in 1808.

Quercy corresponds to the occupied territory by the Gallic tribe of Cadurques, i.e. with the Gallo-Roman Civitas whose limits were adopted by the dioceses, in Cahors as in all the old cities, then by the French Republic during the department division in 1789.

Subdivisions

Geographical subdivisions: One distinguishes:

• the white Quercy or low Quercy, area of large plates white limestones located at the south-west of Cahors, with villages like Lalbenque, Castelnau-Montratier, Montcuq and Montpezat-with-Quercy.
• the High Quercy, broad band of hard and fissured Jurassic limestones which includes/understands Causses of Martel (northern of the the Dordogne), of Gramat (between Lot and the Dordogne) and of Limogne-in-Quercy (in the south of the Batch): they are dry and permeable plates where the decomposition of the rocks dug small fertile depressions or vertical wells.

Administrative subdivisions in 1789:

• General information : Quercy belonged to the Généralité of Montauban.
• Election S : Quercy was divided into three elections: Cahors, Figeac and Montauban
• Seneschalsy S : Quercy constituted the Sénéchaussée of Quercy, which included/understood five baillages secondary: Cahors, Figeac, Montauban, Gourdon, Lauzerte and Martel (Viscount of Turenne)

Etymology

The word Quercy comes from cardurcínum derived from the name from the Gallic Peuple that the Romans called Cadurci . The inhabitants of Cahors were thus famous as being of Cadurciens.

One sought to interpret this name by the Gallic one. The name would be connected with the Gallic root cados = cadros , “beautiful”, and its reconstituted form first, cad-but-Ci could undoubtedly mean “those which live on the edges of a beautiful river”, the Lot. But it is more probable than it derives from an old toponym.

The natural park of Quercy

The natural park of causses of Quercy, created in 1999, extends on 175.717 hectares and gathers 97 of the 340 communes of the Lot. The territory is composéde 3 mediums geological: the causse, valleys and Limargue, in the east, equipped with an important hydrographic network. It is this network which forms the multitude of caves and pits. The underground cavities shelter eight rare and vulnerable species of Chauve-souris. The 5 valleys of the Batch, That, the Worms, Ouysse and Alzou are, they, overhung cornices where nest of large raptors like the Peregrine falcon and the Hibou large-duke. The banks of these rivers support the development of the Orchidée S savages, of the narcisses of the poêtes and the small ferns " Ophioglosse s" or " languages of serpent". On the moors with genévriers of causse, live the yelling Oedicnème, small wader, and the Lézard ocellé, which can reach 60 cm to 80 cm length and which is largest of Europe. The natural park also shelters the last zone of France métroplitaine (except mountainous areas) virgin of any luminous, known pollution under the name of black Triangle of Quercy.

Historians of Quercy

• Canon Edmond Alba, (1861 - 1926)

• Antoine de Cathala-Coture, (1632 - 1724)
• Abbot Guillaume Lacoste, (1755 - 1831)
• Jean Lartigaut
• Canon Eugene Ground
• Abbot Barthelemy Taillefer
• Jean-Claude Sangoï