Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val Art and History Museum

Saint Antonin Noble Val is on the border between Tarn et Garonne and Rouergue (modern-day Aveyron), and where Albigeois and Quercy end. It is one of France's oldest medieval towns and one of the towns that have survived most of history's countless vagaries. It is surrounded by fortified villages and skirts the western fringes of Grésigne departmental forest. Saint Antonin Noble Val is also at the foot of Roc d'Anglars and nestled in the Aveyron river gorges. It boasts France's oldest civilian monument: its former Hôtel de Ville (Town Hall) facing Place de la Halle, the medieval town's main square. It was built in 1125 and houses a museum today. The Association des Amis du Vieux Saint-Antonin (an association founded to protect and promote the old part of Saint-Antonin) opened this museum in 1936. Donations from the town's people and archaeologists and historians working in the area have enhanced its collections since. Besides its Arts and Traditions collections, this museum features remarkable collections showcasing local geological treasures and prehistoric fossils and insects. Military architecture pervades this town (the original borough was a cluster of intertwining houses forming a tortuous maze of improbably narrow alleyways). The spirit of a Protestant stronghold under the Old Regime adds to this remarkably well kept fortified town's appeal.