In southwestern France, the Guch area, Auch is a city that will steal your heart as soon as you see the old Episcopal, which is extremely elevated on the River Gers.
The Haute-Ville River it calls is so steep that in the Middle Ages, special stairs were built to help its citizens safely enter the river. These are called Pousterles, and are unique to Auch, with the remaining five for you to defeat. Auch Adv Church is absolutely indispensable and is complete with Renaissance masterpieces. After that, there are museums and medieval sights to mill around, and Amragnac distilleries, bastide towns to tempt you to close by. Discover the best things to do in Auch.
[toc]
1. Auch Cathedral
With UNESCO status as a stop on the road to the pilgrimage site in Compostela, Auch’s glorious Cathedral is a beacon for miles around. It’s a fusion of Gothic and Renaissance, having been constructed at the transition of these eras in the 15th and 16th centuries, and there’s a wealth of ornamentation to dazzle you.
The 113 stalls in the choir were carved from hard oak with bewildering complexity in the 16th century. You need to take as long as possible to do this work justice, and to be able to identify more than 1,500 motifs in the canopy.
The windows in the choir are also phenomenal, and encapsulate that blend of Gothic and Renaissance. They often claim to be the most beautiful from this period in France.
2. Tour d’Armagnac
This 40-meter tower is an unmistakable fixture in the townscape. The Tour d’Armagnac was constructed in the 1300s and attached to the Episcopal Palace next to the cathedral. The tower was meant to be a prison and a symbol of the might of the Bishop of Auch, but because of a lack of offenders, it was turned into a warehouse for religious archives.
That was until the Reign of Terror in the Revolution when the tower became a prison once more and remained so up to 1860. These cells have been preserved inside, and there’s a monumental spiral staircase winding up the interior.
3. Musée du Trésor de la Cathédrale
The ground floor of the Tour d’Armagnac has recently been converted into the treasury museum for the neighboring cathedral. There are over 200 paintings, polychrome sculptures, carved stones and items of gold, which are much more than just devotional objects and possess universal artistic value.
The museum is also an interpretation center for the cathedral and Episcopal Palace, set up with videos and interactive displays with facts about the history of the complex and its restoration.
4. Monumental Staircase
A very noble way of entering the Haute-Ville, Auch’s Escalier Monumental 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 here before.
This was no small job and took several years up to 1863: There are three terraces with gardens and fountains, linked by 374 steps, delivering you from the riverbank right up to the Tour d’Armagnac.
The stairway has a neo-Renaissance style, with balustrades edging the terraces, and a statue of Charles de Batz-Castelmore d’Artagnan, a real 17th-century musketeer who inspired Alexandre Dumas’ novels and lived in Auch.
5. Musée des Jacobins
Nestled in the ranks of the old streets is a brilliant museum with the second largest pre-Columbian art stockpile in France. There were gold, textiles, and ceramics from Peru and Mexico before the Spaniards arrived.
But the pinnacle is a little more recent: The Mass of St Gregory is a mosaic made from feathers in Mexico City in 1539, and so the oldest piece of Christian art composed in the Americas.
Away from Latin America, there’s art and artifacts including the 1st-century bust of Trajan, polychrome medieval sculptures of the Virgin and Child, and applied art like faïence and musical instruments.
6. Pousterles
In the Middle Ages, the challenging terrain of Auch Thang created long, straight stairs leading to Haute-Ville. These are known as “Pousterles” and there are five in all. They allowed people living atop the hill to get down to the river quickly, and today all except the Vieille Pousterle have kept their original stairway.
None of them walk lightly, but you have to see them because their noble stone houses click on from the sides, and to feel what a medieval Auch resident must go through every day. just to get water!
7. Promenade Claude-Desbons
The right bank of the Gers is quieter than the left, and a four-kilometer band of parkland hugs the riverfront for the entire length of the city. There are trees and lawns, and lots of places to sit and admire the church and the Armagnac bat tour, located on the opposite side.
If you don’t want to skip your morning jog, this is the place to take it, and you should carry on the north you get to Parc du Couloumé. This is a 5-hectare park in the English style, with lots of trees and lined up to give you more inspiring views of Haute-Ville.
8. Maison à Colombages
Facing the cathedral on Place de la République is one of the most striking buildings in the city. It’s a four-story half-timbered house, with a corbelled stone base supporting the rickety levels above.
When you get closer you’ll see that the wooden sections are filled in with red bricks, and the timbers have an odd variety of patterns. The building has been standing here since the 1400s and currently hosts the Auch Tourist Office, so you'll have every reason to go inside.
9. Marché Traditionelle
The Gers region is famous for gourmet cuisine and is especially known for foie gras, in the season from around November to March. Every Thursday and Saturday morning in Auch, there is a typical market at the foot of the cathedral.
Almost everything sold here is local, so there’s no better way to get to know what is produced in this region that is at a transition between the Mediterranean climate and the cooler Oceanic influences of the west coast.
There’s wine, preserves, cheese, charcuterie, pastries and fruits and vegetables, all sold in a cheerful atmosphere.
10. Château de Lavardens
This resplendent house above its namesake village was a fief of the Counts of Armagnac when it was built in the 1100s. But over the years, it was ruined before the reconstruction began in the 17th century.
A lot of what you see is from that time, except for a village plague that forced the builders to flee in 1653 and the above sections never end. There, there is still a lot to see inside, like a whispering room, where the sound allows whispers to be heard from corner to corner.
The château has been put to use as an exhibition hall, with a sweet little cafe in one of its outbuildings next door.
More ideals for you: Top 10 things to do in Grasse
from : https://wikitopx.com/travel/top-10-things-to-do-in-auch-707475.html
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét