A picturesque fortified village on the banks of the Aveyron whose streets are lined with medieval half-timbered and corbelled houses, Montricoux is a village worth visiting.
First of all for its old castle which still keeps some traces of the Templars who built it. It belonged for a time to Sully. Today it houses the Marcel-Lenoir museum, a famous painter of the 19th and 20th centuries, a former figure of Montparnasse where he frequented Modigliani and Fernand Léger. Marcel Lenoir retired at the end of his life to Montricoux where he died in 1931.
Another museum to visit is the Villa des Peintres, created in 2011, which covers all the fields of visual, plastic and graphic arts, a unique artistic encounter that covers various styles and movements.
Also worth seeing, the Templar Keep, the three watchtowers and the ramparts that remain from the old fortifications of the village. The old rampart, in which openings were dug, remains on each side of the towers.
Another curiosity is the Saint-Pierre church and its bell tower. Eight chapels were opened after the construction of the building by the Templars, six on either side of the nave, one in the heart on the right and the eighth above the chapel of Saint-Antoine on the left when entering. It still communicates with the castle.
Another remarkable church is the church of Saint-Laurent, formerly called Saint-Félix chapel in 767. It was probably rebuilt or transformed in the 17th and 19th centuries.
Other notable elements of Montricoux's heritage are its mills and its wash houses. Currently, there are two mills, one still in operation, the second, the mill of Embarre, whose building still exists near the stream of the same name.
As for the washhouses, built in the 19th century, Montricoux has three of them today, the Embarre washhouse, the Marcayran washhouse, located at the place of the same name and the covered washhouse of Saint-Laurent.
Finally, you must see the Sacré-Coeur, built by Louis Cazottes, a local child, thanks to the donation of an English benefactress to house a Christian art school which opened its doors in 1880. It now houses the media library.
Mairie de Montricoux
Place du Souvenir,
82800 Montricoux
Tél. : 05 63 67 20 60
mairie-montricoux@info82.com
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
