Bretenoux, Lot Département, Occitanie, France

🇫🇷 Bretenoux is a commune in the Lot department in south-western France.

Toponymy Bretenoux comes from the name Brittanorum villa, which means "the domain, the property, of the Breton villa". The origin of the name may come from the settling of Breton in the area in 5 and 6th Century's AD after they fled their land from Angles and Saxons invaders. Later names used was Villafranca d'Orilenda, Orlanda and Orlinda.

History The town is first mentioned in the monastery of Beaulieu's cartulary in 866. It was called the Villa Bretenoro.

Founded in 1277 by the powerful Guerin, Lord of Castelnau, it has retained its checker-board grid plan, squares and its covered arcades, remains of ramparts, and two beautiful turreted houses, one the town hall, the other the gendarmerie.  He granted the town fishing rights, access to the river islands, and two markets a year on condition a wall was constructed around the town with moats and four gates.

Geography: Location The Bastide is located north of the Lot, near the border with the Corrèze department, in the Dordogne Valley, Bretenoux is attached to the town of Biars-sur-Cère. It is watered by the Cère and Le Mamoul rivers, and crossed by the D940 and D803 national roads.

Places and monuments • L'église Sainte-Catherine - built outside the walls in during 1600s and the outside remodelled in 1763; • La place des Consuls: Square in shape, surrounded by houses with arcades and half-timbered houses. • The house of de l'oncle du Midi, Pierre Loti, on the corner of rue d'Orlinde and rue Pierre-Loti. • The town hall (mairie) occupies the eastern facade of the old house of the Consuls. • Château de Castelnau-Bretenoux is located on the neighbouring town of Prudhomat.