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February 11th, 2013
La Couvertoirade 120082 12230
Aveyron Midi-Pyrenees
43.917 3.317 785 m

Winter outside walls, La Couvertoirade

One view. The Rédounel windmill.
Another view. The Knights Templar castle, and the pond sheep. February 12th, 2013.

Winter outside the walls, in la Couvertoirade, on the Causse du Larzac, Larzac limestone plateau.

_ On CAUSSE OF LARZAC, in a medieval village built at the 12th century by the KNIGHTS OF THE ORDER OF THE TEMPLE, and in a fortified enclosure built with the 15th century by the SOVEREIGN MILITARY HOSPITALLER ORDER OF SAINT JOHN OF JERUSALEM, during seven centuries, the Knights Templar, then the Hospitaller Order in 1312, practised the culture and the breeding there, providing provisioning for the war.

_ KNIGHTS OF THE ORDER OF THE TEMPLE, Knights Templar.
In 1119, Hugues de Payns, knight originating in Champagne, melt a militia, "The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon", which will become the "Knights of the Order of the Temple". Monks, knights, monks and soldiers, Templiers will defend Jerusalem, and the pilgrims going on the tomb of Christ.
In 1291, following the fall Saint-Jean-d'Acre, the Knights Templar are folded up in Cyprus, then in Rhodos.
In 1312, the order is dissolved, and after a lawsuit, the large Master Jacques de Molay and other Knights templar are sharp flarings on roughing-hew it.

_ SOVEREIGN MILITARY HOSPITALLER ORDER OF SAINT JOHN OF JERUSALEM, Knights Hospitaller.
Before the first crusade, a hospital is founded in Jerusalem close of the Holy Sepulchre for the Western pilgrims, other Hospitals are create in the ports Italian and Provencaux. In 1113, the Hospital of Midsummer's Day of Jerusalem is recognized like an independent hospital order.
In 1140, the Order of the Hospital becomes in military order, with nevertheless vocation of charity and defense of Christendom.
In 1312, the goods of Templiers, after their dissolution, are allotted to the Hospital ones.
In 1522, Turkish takes Rhodos.
In 1530, the emperor Charles Quint allots Malta to the Hospital ones. They since are called SOVEREIGN MILITARY ORDER OF MALTA or Knights of Malta .

La Couvertoirade history.

_ The CAUSSE of LARZAC is vastest and southernmost of "GRANDS CAUSSES", large causses. Its 1000 km ² of plateau rise from 600 to 900 meters. It is limited to the North-East by Dourbie river which separates it from "Causse Noir", in the North-West the Tarn river separates it from the plateau of Lévézou, in the west it stops with the depression of Roquefort. Its surface is strewn with famous sites with the military orders, Knights of the Order of the Temple and Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem.

_ The GRANDS CAUSSES, in the south of the Massif Central, are delimited in north by the plateau of "Aubrac", in the east by the Cévennes, the south by the plain of the "lodévois", in the west by the plateau of "Lévézou". These are plateaus limestones whose altitude varies from 700 to 1250 meters of altitude, and of surface going up to 1000 km². The "Grands Causses" are formed by important "Causses of Larzac" (1000 km²), of "Sauveterre" (550 km²), "Méjean" (330 km²), and "Noir" (200 km²), but also of the causses "Comtal", "Rouge" and of "Sévérac", and many small peripheral causses like causses of "Mende", "Blandas", "Changefèges", "Bégon", etc… No waterway circulates on the surface of the plates, because the rainwater infiltrates in the karstic, generating networks of many swallow-holes and caves, to re-appear in the valleys. Geology of causses and the cévennes.

LA COUVERTOIRADE is a french commune, located in the department of Aveyron of the Midi-Pyrénées area, populated of 179 Couvertoiradois in 2009, distributed on 61.9 km², that is to say 2.9 hab./km².

The village of La Couvertoirade is quoted, Cubertoirata, as of the 11th century.

La Couvertoirade is one of the most beautiful villages of France.

My images of la Couvertoirade.
My images of the Causse du larzac.

Copyright © All rights reserved. The use or the reproduction, on any media, for profit or not profit, of my photographs, including my photographs published in workshop, the notes or the texts, is prohibited without my written authorization. Joel Berthonneau.