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Sainte-Bazeille (Municipality, Lot-et-Garonne, France)

Flag of Sainte-Bazeille - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 4 April 2022

Presentation of Sainte-Bazeille
Flag of Sainte-Bazeille

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Presentation of Sainte-Bazeille

Sainte-Bazeille (3,173 inhabitants in 2021; 2,067 ha) is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department.

The town owes its name to Saint Basilla, a Christian from Galicia who, according to legend, was martyred on her soil in the 4th century. The site of Sainte-Bazeille has been occupied since prehistoric times. Many fragments prove the antiquity of the city: quantity of flint weapons, Gallic tombs, cameos in precious stones, gold necklaces and bracelets. After the conquest of Crassus (young lieutenant of Julius Caesar), the Romans
established a city surrounded by walls, equipped with two gates which would have been called according to some "Aurangia". Later, it successively underwent the domination of the Visigoths, the Saracens, the Normans and was ransacked and burned several times.

At the beginning of the Middle Ages, it formed, with Lamothe-Landerron, seigniory which drew its income from its rich lands and tolls on the river. The parish which then had three churches (one inside the city and two
outside) depended on the diocese of Bazas. Placed under English authority in the 13th and at the beginning of the 14th century, it then dependend from the House of Albret, for many years. This noble family maintained the castle it owned in the town, and Jeanne d'Albret managed to introduce Protestantism into the city. From then on, it was protected by Henri de Navarre (the future Henri IV), but its walls had to be destroyed by order of the Parliament of Bordeaux in the 1580s. Lacking fortifications, it was, in 1586, subjected to a harsh siege during which Sully figured among its defenders. In 1651, Louis XIV gave the duchy of Albret to the Dukes of Bouillon who became the new lords of Sainte-Bazeille.

During the Revolution, the village, which had a regiment formed with the help of its inhabitants, asked to be part of the department of Gironde but was nevertheless attached to Lot-et-Garonne.
In 1851, Sainte-Bazeille was the scene of a battle between Republicans from Marmande, opposed to the advent of the future Napoleon III, and government troops.

The current Notre-Dame church was built at the end of the 19th century in place of a Romanesque chapel (formerly dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene) of which only the tower serving as a bell tower was kept and which was raised from 'an arrow. The church has the particularity of having its main portal surmounted by a banner bearing the republican inscription "liberty equality fraternity" as well as a side door whose tympanum bears the same motto.

Olivier Touzeau, 4 April 2022

Flag of Sainte-Bazeille

The flag of Sainte-Bazeille is a vertical banner 3:2, white with the coat of arms (photo, 2021).

The arms of Sainte-Bazeille are blazoned: Quarterly 1.Tierced bendwise Or, Gules and Azure; 2. Gules a cross cléchée, voided and pommetty of 12 Or; 3. Gules plain; 4. Gules a fess Argent; the partition debruised by a wavy fess Argent, overall an inscutcheon Azure, a battle axe Argent, a bordure Or charged with 9 hurts; all ensigned with a comble Gules a leopard Or, flanked in pale Azure at dexter and senester, each charged with a fleur-de-lis Or.
The motto "lente recte" means "slowly and righteously"

Olivier Touzeau, 4 April 2022