bastide

bastide, type of village or town built largely in the 13th and 14th centuries in England and Gascony and laid out according to a definite geometric plan. It is thought by some to have been an influence on English colonists when building such New World settlements as New Haven, Conn.

Edward I of England, also duke of Gascony, was one of the foremost rulers to lay out new towns. He did so for defensive, economic, and colonizing purposes. The lord of a manor with a successful bastide on it could expect an increase of revenue from the rents, fair and market tolls, justice profits, and trade tariffs. Most of the British bastides, especially those in Wales, had a marine-based economy, while the Gascon bastides were dependent on the production and exportation of wine.

With allowances made for local terrain, bastides were laid out according to a rectangular grid derived from ancient Roman town plans. The bastide was often built on a hilltop, with the streets dividing the town into rectilinear insulae (“islands” or “blocks”), which, in turn, were divided into placae, or house and garden lots. In order to facilitate rent collecting, the blocks were numbered in military fashion from right to left, top to bottom. The streets, as far as possible, met at right angles. A marketplace was always planned, which included arcaded shops (cornières) and sometimes a market hall.

The typical bastide is found in the ruins of New Winchelsea, Eng., a town that died because the sea on which it depended receded, leaving marshland. In Gascony the bastides were founded for security and colonization purposes in a heavily forested area. Bastides in Gascony include Lalinde, Beaumont-du-Périgord, and La Bastide Monestier.