Wealth in stone: building activity of the viscounts of Béarn on the pilgrimage roads of the Atlantic Pyrenees (ca. 1063-ca. 1130)

Abstract

This study examines the phenomenon of ¿petrification¿ in the Adour region of the Pyrenees in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when the area was governed by the viscounts of Béarn. Petrification refers to the building activity undertaken and maintained in both economic and legal terms by this noble family. Here the focus is on a number of monasteries, churches, abbeys, bridges and roads which were a key factor in the improvement of the road network underpinning the pilgrimage route known as the Camino de Santiago. The main objective of their territorial strategy was to provide a means of crossing the gaves or rivers that crisscross the region from southeast to northwest, carving out the fertile valleys of Ossau, Aspe and Barétous.