Ancienne Bergerie ronde
MonumentHidden Treasure
Ultima surviving round sheepfold of the Landes de Gascogne, this discreet jewel in the shape of a horseshoe reveals a unique pastoral architecture, possibly heir to the traditions of Compostellan pilgrimage.
History
Nestling in the commune of Goualade, in the heart of the southern Gironde, the Ancienne Bergerie Ronde is a building that defies the ordinary categories of French rural heritage. Far from castles and cathedrals, it is here that everyday architecture, that of shepherds and large flocks, has been elevated to the rank of historic monument - not by chance, but because it is the last survivor of a type of building that has now disappeared from the Landes landscape. The first thing that strikes you is its unusual silhouette. The building takes the form of a horseshoe, a vestige of what was once a perfectly circular plan, truncated in the 19th century when the large flocks of sheep disappeared with the gradual afforestation of the Landes. Its transformation into a stable, cowshed and cart shed testifies to the formidable adaptability of rural builders in the face of the economic and landscape upheavals of their time. The visitor experience is one of quiet discovery. No crowds, no souvenir shops: just a building that speaks, to those who know how to listen, of centuries of transhumance, wool and wind in the pines. The thirteen radiating bays of the framework, converging on an imaginary central point in the courtyard, create a striking interior geometry, almost mystical in its rigour. The Landes setting amplifies this impression of isolation and authenticity. The coniferous forests that surround the commune are a reminder of the transformation of the landscape that condemned this sheepfold to conversion. To come here is to pass through layers of French rural history that are often obscured by grand monuments: the history of ordinary people, their animals and their architectural skills passed down on pilgrimage routes.
Architecture
The building is based on a construction principle that is highly original in French rural architecture. Originally annular, the building now takes the form of a horseshoe opening onto an inner courtyard, while retaining the radial logic that defined the original plan. The exterior wall, blind and robust, is made of local limestone rubble with mortar joints, forming a continuous wall that gave the building its resistance to the prevailing Atlantic winds. On the courtyard side, the structure adopts a radically different construction vocabulary: a framework of wooden posts rests on blocks of cut stone, linked together by low walls supporting a plank partition. This contrast between the mineral exterior and the mixed interior - stone, wood and planks - is characteristic of the vernacular architecture of the Bas-Médoc and Bazadais regions, which adapts its materials to suit the function and exposure. The roof structure is the technical masterpiece of the complex. Its trusses radiate out from a fictitious central point in the courtyard, creating thirteen fan-shaped bays covered in hollow tiles typical of southern architecture. This radiating organisation, directly inherited from the original circular plan, creates an interior geometry that is both functional - each bay can accommodate an animal or a flock of sheep - and visually remarkable, evoking the cross-arches of a Romanesque capital on the scale of rural architecture.
Related Figures
Pierre Toulgouat — ethnologue et chercheur spécialiste de l'architecture rurale du Sud-Ouest, premier à documenter et théoriser l'origine compostellane des bergeries rondes landaisesLes bâtisseurs gascons anonymes du XVIIIe siècle — artisans locaux qui maîtrisaient les techniques de construction circulaire en moellons et charpente rayonnanteLes bergers landais — gardiens des grands troupeaux ovins qui peuplèrent ces Landes avant le boisement du XIXe siècle, usagers premiers de l'édificeNapoléon III — dont la politique de boisement des Landes (1857) transforma le paysage et condamna indirectement les bergeries de la région à la disparition ou à la reconversionLes inspecteurs des Monuments Historiques — qui portèrent le dossier d'inscription aboutissant à la protection de 1992
