Mercus Garrabet

Municipality of Mercus-Garrabet Altitude: 480 m Location: towards Tarascon-sur-Ariège in Sabarthès and in the upper Ariège valley Number of inhabitants: 1 Distances: Tarascon-sur-Ariège 203 km This new municipality has Mercus , Garrabet, Amplaing, Croquié, Jarnat, so many villages all of medieval origin. And the oldest vestiges are also numerous in this sector where two dolmens existed (now destroyed), in Amplaing and Garrabet. Next to Amplaing, was one of the largest castles of the counts of Foix leveled in the Middle Ages Castle penent. On the banks of the Ariège, next to Garrabet hide the ruins of the residence of the lords of Garrabet, a castle from the end of the Middle Ages. While Mercus was - and still is - dominated by a beautiful Romanesque church formerly dedicated to Saint Genes. In the 6th century, the large villages of Mercus and Garrabet participated in the revolt against the privatization of forests and woods which threatened the poor because they lost their rights of use: those of Mercus went to the forge and to the manor of the forge master of Saint-Paul-de-Jarrat, claimed the old customs from the blacksmith owners and finally burned the buildings. , a bridge was built which united the two banks of the Ariège and therefore Amplaing to Mercus and Garrabet. More recently, industrialization marked Mercus, site of one of the electrometallurgical factories of the Pechiney group, today taken over by the Praxair company. Opening hours of the town hall: Monday to Friday: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 14 p.m. to 17 p.m.