Archive ouverte HAL - The Medieval Bastides, Their Urban Planning and Some Possible Astronomical Orientations

Archive ouverte HAL - The Medieval Bastides, Their Urban Planning and Some Possible Astronomical Orientations: Bastides are the fortified towns built in medieval Europe, in particular in France, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Many of these towns are displaying a regular planning based on a grid of parallel and perpendicular streets. Here we will show some examples of these layouts using the satellite images. The cases of the bastides of Sauveterre-De-Guyenne, Aigues-Mortes, Libourne and Pavie will be discussed in more detail, because they have possible astronomical orientations. Sauveterre-De-Guyenne has one of its axes oriented along the southern moonrise on a major lunar standstill. Probably this orientation was chosen, because the year of the foundation of the bastide (AD 1281), was a year of major lunar standstill. In the cases of Aigues-Mortes, Libourne and Pavie we can see alignments along the sunrise on solstices.