Around Saint-Lizier

Caractéristiques

Type of footpath : PR®, ‘Promenade et Randonnée’ footpath.
Start and end point : Saint Lizier.
Length : 4.5 km.
Duration : 1 hr 45.
Level : very easy.
En route : the bishops’ palace in Saint Lizier, Gallo-Roman walls, panoramic views of the Pyrenees, Chapelle de Marsan, etc.

Find out more about the ‘Ariège, 14,000 years of history’ collection, a Great Tourist Site in Midi-Pyrénées.

This easy and relatively short walk takes you around Saint Lizier, a little gem in the ‘Ariège, 14,000 years of history’ collection (a Great Tourist Site in Midi-Pyrénées).

This walk around Saint Lizier in the Couserans, one of the little mountainous provinces making up the Ariège département, reveals the wonderful balance between heritage and nature here.

On St James’s Way

This circular walk starts and ends at the Bishops’ Palace in Saint Lizier and involves some gentle climbing, enabling you to appreciate Saint Lizier’s strategic position. An essential staging post on St James’s Way to Santiago de Compostela (the Pyrenean Foothills route), this village was built on the site of a Roman oppidum that watched over the fast-flowing River Salat. Today, the river is a boon for fishing and white water sports including kayaking, white water swimming and rafting.

Mountain views and Romanesque frescoes

Along the walk you’ll be accompanied by the tutelary outline of Mont Valier, symbol of the Couserans, a reminder of the impressive feat of the first bishop of Saint Lizier, who climbed this 2,838-metre-high mountain in around the year 450…

On the way back to Saint Lizier you’ll want to slow your pace to breathe in the fragrant odours in the little back streets and terraced gardens, before entering the cathedral to see the fabulous Romanesque frescoes.
The Bishops’ Palace is home to Saint Lizier’s other cathedral, Notre Dame de la Sède, and it’s here that you realise just how important this place once was, the seat of 79 bishops in succession, from the 4th century to the beginning of the 19th century when the 1801 Concordat abolished the bishopric.

It was then that Saint Lizier lost its place as capital of the Couserans in favour of its close neighbour, the town of Saint Girons. But as a result it has not lost all the charm of a medieval village facing due south towards the Pyrenees.

Location