Pujols (; ) is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in south-western France. Geography Location This once fortified town lies within the municipal community of Greater Villeneuve and overlooks the Lot valley and the city of Villeneuve-sur-Lot. Pujols is located about 19 miles (30 km) north of Agen and halfway between Bordeaux and Toulouse (about 93 miles, or 150 km, from each). Hydrography The Masse, a tributary of the Lot, flows through the municipality. Transportation The route nationale 21 (N21) runs through the town. Town Planning Pujols stretches along an outcrop, and a castle once occupied the western extremity of the town, on the side of the plateau. A passage under the bell tower of Saint Nicholas Church allows access to the old town center, which is still nestled among the remains of the town's thirteenth century ramparts. Pujols developed as a fortified town with a castle, a collegiate church, and a covered marketplace. It is currently a member of the organization The Most Beautiful Towns in France, registered under the name “Pujols le Haut” (Upper Pujols). History The town of Pujols was built on an outcrop atop a steep incline, overlooking the Lot and Masse river valleys. The Abbot Gerbeau, relying on the toponym “At the Palace” (Au Palai) in the town cadaster of 1811, claimed that a palace dating to the High Middle Ages once occupied the western extremity of the outcrop. Pujols seems to have been relatively important at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The city walls were razed however during the Albigensian Crusade in 1229. According to the account of the royal steward of Agenais, Villefavreuse, the town seems to have been rebuilt with difficulty and only partially, while the fortified town of Villeneuve grew in the 1250s due to the arrival of Pujolais chased from Pujols. Sometime in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, the village was fortified with large square slabs of stone, though today there remain only the bell tower gate and the gate of the city (known as the English gate). In 1525, Jean de Pujols and his wife established a chapter of cannons, and built Saint Nicholas Church on the northern side of the town. Towards the beginning of the sixteenth century, the rural Saint-Foy Church was rebuilt within the town's fortifications. The houses of the sixteenth century were made with stone in half-timbered style. Heraldry Politics and Administration