In 1292 Philip the Fair was permitted to settle a small community there,
to whom he accorded in 1293 valuable privileges and the same protection he
granted to his good city of Paris. Philip, to whom the position was
valuable as a frontier post, erected a castle there, maintained a royal
garrison, and the new settlement became known as the New Town
(Villeneuve). The walls and towers then raised were rebuilt in 1352 by
John the Good, who exacted a toll, known as St. Andrew's penny, for
maintenance on all merchandise that passes through the Senechaussee of
Beaucaire.
Of these majestic ruins, restored in the sixteenth century and again in
recent times, the Tour des Masques at the west angle with its simple
battlements is the oldest portion, the massive machicolated towers that
frown over the main entrance having been raised by John the Good. The
ruined ravelin dates back to the seventeenth century. We enter and stroll
about the desolate interior, crowned by a tiny Romanesque chapel of the
twelfth century, that well deserves its name of Our Lady of the Fair View
(Notre Dame de Belvezet), with a graceful apse (restored).
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