CITÉ MÉDIÉVALE DE LA GARDE-GUERIN

The city of "pariers" From the 11th century, La Garde Guérin appeared as a strategic place. "The castle was located on the Regordane road which linked Provence and Languedoc to Auvergne. The Guard was inhabited by noble pariers who constituted, in the 13th century, a kind of police militia responsible for ensuring order on this In the 12th century, the castle was used as a den for a band of brigands who robbed travellers. The Bishop of Mende suppressed the scourge by employing them to watch the road. They structured themselves in the spirit of the Schools of Chivalry of the 12th century. Knights pariers (equal) in rights and duties thus shared the chatelerie or parerie and divided the costs and benefits. The building was on a plateau protected to the north, by the Chassezac, to the south and to the east by escarpments. Access was only via the Regordane. [...] Of the castle only a tower and ruins remain. The walls formed a continuous belt around the hamlet. The facings are constituted by regular courses of cut rectangular sandstone blocks, brought from a neighboring plateau. A high square tower stands in the center of the quadrangle in ruins [...]". Information from the Mérimée database

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