HAUTERIVES

The hamlet of Hauterives is located a little downstream of Saint-Chély du Tarn, isolated on the left bank of the Tarn. Its specificity is that there is no bridge to access it. To stock up, the inhabitants used either a small boat or a little basket on a cable to transport materials or goods from one bank to the other.

The houses of the hamlet have conserved their original characteristics. They were built only with stone, without wooden framework, following the principle of round vaults and covered with limestone flagstones for the roof. Above the village, on a spur, the castle of Hauterives is perched, whose ruins are testimonies of the ravages caused by the Religion Wars.

The village was originally set up in an area that allowed not encroaching on cultivable land, and was out of reach from the river’s floods.