The "villages circulaires"
A medieval circular village is one in which the circle forms the basis of all or part of the building organisation. The essential element of the system known as ‘circular’ would be the succession of rings arranged regularly around the central core in the form of ribbons of terraced houses. In practical terms, the streets are laid out in a circle around a central point, a church or castle, which may be high up.
Typical of the Languedoc region, several villages such as Puissalicon, Puimisson, Saint-Genies de Fontedit, Roujan, Margon, Gabian and Fouzilhon are affected by this characteristic.
Until now, the bastides of the south-west, towns founded on a rectangular plan, were considered to be the first examples of urban development in the Middle Ages. In the Languedoc region, however, the circular model was formed two centuries before the bastides, marking the birth of European urban planning.
These circular settlements would have marked the birth of town planning on a European scale, by projecting planned shapes onto the ground using the central stake and the rope marking the radius of the circle to be drawn.
