Ussat

The caves above the village are the rich remains from the Magdalenian period of the Bronze Age and two of them are fortified caves, castles-barracks of the Counts of Foix in the Middle Ages. On the other side of the Ariège, the cave of Lombrives also contained the remains of burials from the Middle Bronze to the final Bronze age (-1500 to -800). It served as a haven for counterfeiters in 1300: caught, they were acquitted because they had confessed that they were unable to make money well enough to be ever used!

The ancient village of Ussat was composed of two cities. As in the small valley of Orlonac, Ussat-le-Vieux was set on the highlands while the village down the valley is the most recent. Ussat is mentioned from the eleventh century and we know that these hillsides were populated before the year 1000. The Church of St. Martin was located mid-valley near the cemetery and was moved when the village above expanded.

Ussat was a small community in the late Middle Ages: we could only count ten taxable homes in the fourteenth century, and it shared its priest with Ornolac.

The size of the community and its proximity with the large town of Tarascon implied that it was associated with the consulate of Tarascon from very early on.

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