Puy-l'Évêque

History

The origins of the town are obscure. Though vestiges of a Roman road have been discovered running through it, there is no mention of the town until the Middle Ages. It was a Cathar stronghold before the Albigensian Crusade; in 1228 the warrior Bishop of Cahors, Guillaume de Cardaillac, took possession of it and gave it the present name of Puy-l’Evêque, "Bishop's Hill". From then on, it remained under the control of the Count-Bishops of Cahors. Puy-l'Évêque suffered considerably in the Hundred Years' War when it was occupied for a time by the English. In 1580, during the Wars of Religion, it was besieged unsuccessfully by the Protestants under the future King Henri IV; the marks of his cannonballs can still be seen in the main church of Saint-Sauveur. With the French Revolution the rule of the Count-Bishops ended and the town briefly took the name of 'Puy Libre'. In the period of prosperity that followed the Napoleonic Wars the town was transformed. The 1830s and 1840s saw the construction of the first bridge over the Lot, and the building of the Route Nationale 111 (now D811), the first good road connection to the outside world. A branch railroad line arrived in 1869.