AIGNE

Aigne, a village in the Minervois, owes its name to the "Villa d'Annius", a veteran of Julius Caesar.

At an altitude of 145m, 270 Aignois(es) live in this village including the hamlets of Campan, La Prade, Les Mouleyres, Les Tuileries, Plovadi, Son Reve and Sainte Luchaire.

The inhabitants are proud of their "Cagarol" (or Cagarou) which, in Occitan, means snail.

In this old dialect of South of France, you can possibly hear "Per veïre lo cagarau, cal totjorn pasar per lo même trauc", which means "To see the snail, you must always go through the same hole".

The architecture of the "snail" consists of a main street that winds its way to the heart of the village.

In the centre, you will find the church of St. Martin, in a romanesque architecture style, complemented by a Gothic style. It is also topped by three bells, the most recent of which is decorated and listed as a historical monument. Built on a hill at an altitude of 148m, Aigne has seduced many artists and craftsmen, who have set up their workshops there and welcome visitors.

It should be noted that a Roman road went from Aigne to Minerve via Saint Abdon, and another went from Aigne to Beaufort. At Saint-Michel there must have been a Romanesque villa which would have given some clues in the form of tiles, pottery, paintings, briquettes.
At La Prade, Les Mouleyres, Sainte Léocadie, Les Clauzes and La Lèque there were Romanesque villas. The first one delivered murals, a bronze hand and others and the second one, in addition to tiles, dolia and amphoras of the Campanian. 
From the remains of the ancient village there is the famous circulatory of the year 1000, called the snail of Aigne, a name given by the very shape of the buildings that surround the parish church of St. Martin, the central point of the village. At the time of the Viscounts of Minerve, Aigne was a dependency of the castle of Minerve, under the protection of the Lacaune guard outpost (La Caunette today). It was an agricultural estate situated on a plateau with non-existent surface water, completely isolated from the main routes of invasion and communication, but used for raising woollen animals and for the meagre cultivation of seeds and fodder.