Vicdessos/Arconac

Village of Vicdessos (Commune of Val-de-Sos) Altitude: 625 m Location: in the valley of the same name, at the crossroads of the lakes in the valley and the Pyrenean peaks and bordering the municipality of Auzat Number of inhabitants: 684 Distances: Tarascon-sur-Ariège 16 km Vicdessos or "Vic Desos", that is to say the village of the Sos valley, is a very old town which we know had its first castle in least in the 9th century when it was recovered by the Count of Foix. The old Vicdessos was surrounded by a wall which was rebuilt at the end of the 12th century by the inhabitants to protect themselves from conflicts within the framework of the Hundred Years War. Certainly older than the castle, the church of Vicdessos is a little away from the old town because the village has slipped into the enclosure at the foot of the castle. This church became in the 9th century a priory of the abbey of Saint-Sernin in Toulouse. Vicdessos remained until recently the most important village in the upper valley and was the center of a pre-communal administration, a consulate, set up by the counts of Foix in the 12th and 14th centuries and endowed with a fair where they sold the animals that came down from the mountain in September. This consulate brings together all the village communities of the upper valley and the iron-related activities - around the Rancié mine - made it rich. At least from the 16th century, perhaps before, the village acted as a town, populated by craftsmen, traders - bourgeois in the proper sense - while the surrounding villages - including Arconac - were mainly populated by peasants. . Opening hours of the town hall: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday: XNUMX a.m. to XNUMX p.m. Wednesday and Friday: XNUMX a.m. to XNUMX p.m. and XNUMX p.m. to XNUMX p.m.