Cordes-sur-Ciel

Cordes-sur-Ciel occupies a prominent hill in the Tarn department, above the Cérou valley. The town’s medieval street pattern rises through successive levels towards its upper centre. Its principal architectural distinction is a group of Gothic merchants’ houses, with carved stone façades that reflect the prosperity of the medieval settlement. A covered market and the streets around it form part of the upper town. Workshops and artistic activity contribute to its present life. Cordes-sur-Ciel is a member of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France. Its hilltop form, domestic architecture and surrounding cultivated landscape are all essential to understanding the place; the town should not be reduced to the occasional photographs of it above mist.

The climb is part of Cordes’s character. From below, the settlement reads as a mass on a hill; inside, it becomes a sequence of doorways, façades and changing prospects. The merchants’ houses make commerce visible in architecture. Looking closely at them gives substance to the impressive overall silhouette.