Grand’ Rue de l’église

The road that ran through the village, the “grand” rue de l’église, was the motorway ofmedieval times, linking Toulouse to Spain and Bayonne. You entered the town through the Porte du Levant (coming from Toulouse, now rue St-Roch). This was an important single road, and it was paved very early on with stones found near the Garonne to cope with the heavy traffic of travellers, stagecoaches, horsemen, pilgrims and various carriages. Little did anyone know that the stones used came from the luxurious Gallo-Roman villa at Chiragan! Some have been dug out and used as drinking troughs or family wash-houses, as well as curbstones for wells and wide steps leading up to the ramparts, worn away by footsteps before the restoration work around the town.

Martres-Tolosane was a stopover town under the Emperor Napoleon, and the villagers had only 100 beds to offer with room and board to accommodate up to 800 soldiers on certain evenings with their mounts and supplies (weapons and cannons).