Gestiès

Municipality of Gesties

Altitude: 827m
Location: between the villages of Siguer, Capoulet-et-Junac and Lercoul in the Vicdessos valley and in the Ariège Pyrenees PNR
Number of inhabitants: 23



Gestiès is a small perched village. A few hundred meters from the village stands the Saint-Nicolas church, an 11th century building. We do not explain why this church is far from the village because it is an infrequent case in the Middle Ages in Haute-Ariège: perhaps the village of Gestiès moved away from its church?
Gestiès is known in the Middle Ages because it was a large village despite its hilly location. At the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, the men of Miglos undertook several violent actions against the property of those of Gestiès, in particular by cutting cereals in the fields:at that time, violence between communities was frequent because the limits between them were fixed.

Barely later, a charter tells us that a Marquefave is a lord in Gestiès, which could be surprising since Marquefave is in the Garonne valley. It is in fact a family descended from the same vast kinship of the central Middle Ages - that of the Amelii - as most of the seigneurial families of Haute Ariège, the Quié, the Rabat, etc.
Gestiès acquired a new church in the 16th century, in the heart of the village, probably because that of Saint-Nicolas was impractical because it was far away.
Like Siguer, Gestiès was a favorable place for slate quarries.

Town hall opening hours:
Monday: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (reception on even weeks, reception from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on odd weeks)

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