Le pays de Saint-Cirq | Découvrez Saint-Cirq Lapopie | Aux portes du village
Tourisme et activités | Les artistes de Saint-Cirq | English page

In the Middle Ages, Saint-Cirq Lapopie was the main town of one of the four viscountcies that made up Quercy. It was divided between four feudal dynasties, the Lapopies, Gourdons, Cardaillacs and Castelnaus. The village was dominated by a fortress made up of a number of castles and towers.

Below the fortress, the village streets lead down to fortified gates. Many historic houses have stone or half-timbered fronts going back to the 13th-16th centuries. The houses are norrow and have steep tiled roofs. The gabled houses fronting on the street are separated by a narrow space called an entremi, which carried away rainwater and waste from sinks and latrines.

Many painters came to live and work in Saint-Cirq Lapopie. First the Post-Impressionist Henri Martin, then the Surrealists with the poet André Breton, who said he would not want to live anywhere else.

Beneath the Saint-Cirq Lapopie cliff there are watermills, weirs, harbours, locks and towpath to recall the days when river transport was the glory of the Lot Valley.