Hastingues

3 March 2007

The morning after our brief touch of the Tour de France we spotted another special rest stop on the A-64, “Les Routes du Pèlerinage de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle” – illustrating the various routes of the Compostella Pilgrimage.

This has been a popular pilgrimage for over 1200 years with various routes leading from northern France, the middle of France and from various cities along the Mediterranean, the bulk of them leading through the valley, to the north of the Pyrenees, in which the British founded village of Hastingues is located. By the 12th century the principal French starting points for the pilgrimage had been fixed as Paris, Vézelay, le Puy and Arles (see earlier post on Arles).

The veneration of the relics of Saint-Jacques is based on the discovery about 830 A.D. of the remains of an ancient tomb near what is today Compostella. The traditional story, some would say myth, is that he had come to Spain to preach Jesus’ message and after his return to Judea, where he was beheaded, the body of this disciple of Jesus was miraculously carried to this site in Spain.

Politics and religion are appropriately mixed a few years later to give impetus to the crusade to expel from Spain the Moors (followers of Islam) who had conquered it. At the Battle of Clavijo in 844, Saint-Jacques is said to have appeared as a shining knight, charging the Moors alongside the Christian crusaders. The apostle thus became the spiritual head of the Reconquest of Spain. Great Lords, bourgeoisie merchants, and simple peasants crossed the Pyrenees to participate in the crusades and later in the pilgrimage. The pilgrimages helped to repopulate the region after the Reconquest and to create economic activity along the routes.

Hastingues, founded in 1289 by John Hastings a vassal of Edward 1st, King of England and Duke of Aquitaine (by marriage to the Duchess of Aquitaine), benefited from the pilgrimage. While the marriage was a tempestuous relationship resulting at one point in the imprisonment of the Duchess (a kind of “castle arrest”) in England to allow Edward to pursue his relationship with a very young cousin, it did result in English control over this region for some years. Today the village retains remnants of a fortified gate

and a church of the era.

The bell-tower of the church is part of the original church erected in 1304, and reconstructed in 1896. The newer parts of the church are identified by the different stone.

Several houses from the 15th and 16th centuries are still intact.



Anyone interested in a small renovation project?

The town boasts one large villa from a later period.