Hontanx

The highest quality Armagnacs are produced in the Bas Armagnac. This area comprises 24 townships or villages grouped on the larger towns of Aire sur l’ Adour, Villeneuve de Marsan, Roquefort and Gabarret. These towns are in the forefront of the production of Armagnac.

Arnaud Seguin d’Estang was lord of many manors in the 13th century. He owed his allegiance to GastonVII of Moncade, Viscount of Béarn in 1279.

At this time and for a long time afterwards, France as we know it did not exist and the country was divided into many different areas, ruled by Counts who were constantly at war with one another causing much suffering and hardship for the populace in general. A map dating from the 10th century shows how homes were built close to the local lord’s castle or to a church probably for defensive reasons. These small villages were called castelnaus.

Constance, Viscoutess of Marsan and daughter of Gaston VII obtained from Edouard 1st of England a promise to resolve the conflicts concerning the Bastides of Toujouse and St. Gein. The death of her father made matters worse with the lordships of Foix Bearn and Armagnac also contesting ownership. The Eastern frontier of Constance’s land was constantly under threat so in 1298 she bought Hontanx, then on the edge of Armagnac, and started the military re-inforcement of the village.

In 1310 Constance withdrew and left everything to her sister Marguerite but it wasn’t until 1331 that Fortaner de Lesun, Constance’s councillor, made everything over to Marguerite. It was Marguerite who finally completed the re-inforcement of the main square and made Hontanx into a Bastide. The tower and the fortified gateway are the only parts still intact.

So it was as a castelnau that Hontanx first appears and then becomes a bastide. Nowadays Hontanx is a small village which still has a central square at it’s heart.