The Medieval Bastides, Their Urban Planning and Some Possible Astronomical Orientations
Résumé
Bastides are the fortified towns built in medieval Europe, in particular in France, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Many of these towns are displaying a regular planning based on a grid of parallel and perpendicular streets. Here we will show some examples of these layouts using the satellite images. The cases of the bastides of Sauveterre-De-Guyenne, Aigues-Mortes, Libourne and Pavie will be discussed in more detail, because they have possible astronomical orientations. Sauveterre-De-Guyenne has one of its axes oriented along the southern moonrise on a major lunar standstill. Probably this orientation was chosen, because the year of the foundation of the bastide (AD 1281), was a year of major lunar standstill. In the cases of Aigues-Mortes, Libourne and Pavie we can see alignments along the sunrise on solstices.
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