for forty years, the old pediment of the halls has been in its garden

In 1864, when the market hall of Villeneuve-sur-Lot was designed, it had to be emblematic of the bastide. Combining iron and cast iron, it was accessible through two monumental stone doors, each decorated with a pediment on which the city's coat of arms was engraved. It is one of them which, for forty years, fell into the hands of the family of Jean-François Garnier. The latter, well known to the Villeneuvois for having founded the Archaeological Society of Villeneuve-sur-Lot and having excavated the Eysses site now the subject of a museum, inherited it from his father: “In the 1960s, then that he was deputy mayor, he recovered it while it had been stored by the municipal services since the stone doors were dismantled. It was going to be put up for sale, as many of the historic stones of the bastide were, recovered by craftsmen for renovation. My father did not want to let go of this symbolic vestige. »

A perfect place

Already at the time, the savior of the pediment had the intention of finding a place for it accessible to the general public, but given its weight, it was difficult to find a place in the museum, at the time located at the Villa Rapin: “As a result , he collected it from his home. And I ended up inheriting it,” says Jean-François Garnier.

Since then he has pampered it, protecting it in winter with a tarpaulin “even if the limestone in which it is sculpted is of good quality since it was intended to resist bad weather. He comes from Pujols. » However, Jean-François Garnier, lover of Villeneuvois heritage, would like this historical vestige to find a place of honor. “It is not only the witness of what the market was originally, but also of the Cieutat bridge built at the end of the 13th century^e century,” explains the archaeologist. Because the coat of arms sculpted there represents the latter with three fortified towers: “At the time, they were the pride of the Villeneuvois.” Successive floods of the Lot in the 17th century^e century damaged the structure and the towers collapsed. The bridge was then rebuilt without its defensive elements.

In 2019, when the hall underwent a new restructuring, Jean-François Garnier expressed himself, wanting the pediment he owned to return to its original place “at the top of the entrance door… I spoke to the architect about it, to the mayor at the time, without success. » Since the renovation, the man has kept the idea in mind, with a precise idea of ​​a location: “As you enter, on the left, there is a free space, next to the inauguration stele, on the wall… Everyone could see it when they passed the door. » If Jean-François Garnier never thought of anything other than donating it to the City, he put one condition on it, that it does not land in the services storage shed “and disappear as good number of other stone remains.