Back Бастыда Byelorussian Bastida (vilanova) Catalan Bastide German Bastide English Bastido Esperanto Bastida (urbanismo) Spanish Bastida (hirigintza) Basque Bastide Finnish Bastide (ville) French באסטיד HE
A bastide is a fortified town.[1] They were built mainly in the south of France in the Middle Ages. Most bastides were built between 1229 and 1373, between the Albigensian Crusade and the Hundred Years' War. Today, there are about 400 bastides. They all have a central square, and a rectangular street layout. On the market square, the houses have arcades. They were usually built in places that were easy to defend, such as the top of a hill or on a plain.
Well-known bastides today are Carcassonne and Andorra la Vella.
- ↑ Bastide emphasises the "built" nature of the enterprise; in spite of the fortified connotations of Bastille, most of the present town walls were not built initially, though their strategic location was a consideration from the start, in part through contractual promises of future military support from the new occupants. (Adrian Randolph, "The Bastides of southwest France" The Art Bulletin 77.2 (June 1995, pp. 290-307) pp 291 note 11 and 303.