• -17 millions years ago
      Before the Gascons

      Covered by the sea for more than 120 million years before it pulled back in part at the beginning of the Tertiary period (-24 M), the Gascon territory was then modelled by the orogeny of the Pyreneans, the erosion and the sedimentary deposits. In the Miocene (-24/-5 M years), it was a jungle with a subtropical climate that revealed paleontological deposits of reference in Montréal-du-Gers (-17 M), La Romieu (-13 M)…, where numerous fossil remains have been found.© Muséum de Toulouse. Christian Nitard

    • Prehistory
      -5 million years to 2000 BC
      The Gers part of Gascony was occupied by man since prehistory (La Romieu, -300 000 years BC). At La Brette (near to Condom), the nomadic Homo sapiens of the upper Palaeolithic (-38 000 to -10 000 BC) settled for short periods as they followed the migrations of large wild herbivores. In the Neolithic (-5 000 BC), the populations settled permanently in the Aquitaine basin, invented agriculture and domesticated animals: a new world was born ! ©CDPM/Flaran pour le musée d'Eauze, photo D.Martin
    • Celts and Gauls
      From 2000 BC to 100 BC
      After the Bronze Age, the Celtic people settled in the Gers part of Gascony in the first millennium BC. They mixed with the native Aquitanians and took over the whole territory. Dispersed in many tribes (Nitiobroges, Elusates, Lactorates…), their Gaul descendants founded towns and oppida (strongholds, places on high ground, often fortified); they organised the territory around the main economic axes, encouraged exchanges and settlement areas. ©CDPM/Flaran, oppidum d'Esberous, photo C.petit-Aupert
    • From Aquitaine to Novempopulanie romaine
      From 100 BC to 476 AD
      After its conquest (56 BC), the Romanisation of Aquitaine relied on the Garonne and the old Gallic axes; the north-south route therefore developed. From the 3rd to 6th century AD, the new province of Novempopulanie («of the nine peoples ») was created and its capital was Elusa, the ancient Eauze. This Roman city reigned over a landscape of large agricultural estates at the head of which could be found a countryside residence: the villa in Séviac. From the 4th to 6th centuries, the then Christianised region, drastically damaged by the ‘barbaric’ invasions, suffered a major economic downturn. ©CDPM/Flaran pour le musée d'Eauze, photo D.Martin
    • Medieval Gascony
      From 500 AD to 1453 AD
      At the end of the 7th century, the Vascons took possession of the lands to the south of the Garonne (Vasconie) that came under the authority of the Dukes of Aquitaine (8th century) then the Counts of Fezensac (9th to 10th centuries). From the 11th to 13th century, feudal division brought about independence with the local Lordships against Aquitaine or the King of France. Gascony then became covered with châteaux, new establishments: sauvetés (zones of refuge), castelnaux and bastides (village of Larressingle, bastides of Montréal-du-Gers and Valence-sur-Baïse, village of Fourcès…), and benefitted from the great religious impetus at that time (Abbaye de Flaran, pont d’Artigues and pilgrimages to Saint-Jacques…). ©CDPM/Flaran, photo D.Martin
    • Modern Era
      From 1453 à 1789
      Integrated into the Duchy of Aquitaine, Gascony did not escape the conflicts between the French and English royalties, then the quarrel between the Armagnacs and the Burgundians… not to mention the endemic plagues! In the Renaissance, with the penetration of the reformist theses, it once again became a battlefield before its integration into the royal estate under Henry IV (1607). The cathedral city of Condom still bears the scars. Whilst the cadets basked in glory thanks to the famous D’Artagnan and his companions in arms, Gascony from the 17th and 18th centuries was administered year in, year out like the other royal ‘généralités’ (administrative divisions of France at that time). © Dominique Viet, Comité Régional du Tourisme de Midi Pyrénées
    • A rural society
      From 1789 to the present day
      Created in 1790, the department of « Armagnac or the Gers » sunk into the revolutionary torments then the Empire; faithful in this respect to their forefathers, the Gers people were illustrious on land as on sea, notably Marechal Lannes (photo). The second Empire brought new economic growth marked by the arrival of the railways and the apogee of the Gers vineyards (1870). The return to a rural exodus and the Phylloxera crisis (1878) put a stop to this golden age for the Gers countryside ©CDPM/Flaran, photo D.Martin
    • From one conflict to another
      From 1789 to the present day
      Despite the benefits of its traditional agriculture and a certification for its « ardent water » (Armagnac museum), the Gers paid a heavy price during the First World War; depopulation increased and the region became a land of immigration (10% in 1936). During the war of 1939-45, after the occupation in the southern zone, its position « between two seas » (entre-deux-mers) and its landscapes lent itself to the establishment of sites of resistance (martyr village of Castelnau-sur-l’Auvignon, Meilhan…). ©CDPM/Flaran pour le musée de l'Armagnac à Condom, photo D.Martin
    • The start of modernity
      From 1789 to the present day
      At the heart of a protected department, with a remarkable tangible and intangible heritage, the Ténarèze has a concentration of multiple features: the paths of Saint-Jacques, gentle touring along the Baïse ; breath-taking landscapes to discover, renowned gastronomy and Armagnac to savour ; fun fetes and festivals, to the more intimate architectural heritage and museum at the Cistercian Abbaye de Flaran… © Dominique Viet, Comité Régional du Tourisme de Midi Pyrénées Everything is combined in unison, individually or together for your pleasure!