Mirepoix

Mirepoix lies on the Hers in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Its earlier settlement stood on the opposite bank beneath the castle of Terride until a flood destroyed it in the late thirteenth century. Accounts differ between 1279 and 1289. The town was rebuilt on higher ground, with streets and a market square resembling the bastides of southern France. Timber-framed houses and covered galleries gave the square its distinctive character.

In 1317 Mirepoix became the seat of a bishopric. Its church needed to grow with its new standing: Bishop Pierre Laperarede began work on the eastern chapels between 1327 and 1348, and later generations continued to enlarge the cathedral. The market town thus combined a planned medieval streetscape with the long construction of an ecclesiastical centre.