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Pradines (Municipality, Lot, France)

Flag in the office of the mayor of Pradines - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 1 June 2025

Presentation of Pradines
Flag of Pradines

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Presentation of Pradines

Pradines (3,600 inhabitants on 1,649 ha) is a commune in the Lot department.

After the Roman conquest, wealthy residents, who had become citizens of Rome, probably built beautiful villas in Pradines. Legend has it that one of these notables was converted to Christianity by the first apostle of Quercy, Saint Martial. The church, which bears the saint's name, was supposedly built on the site of this house. Pradines then became a popular pilgrimage site for several centuries. Like Cahors, Pradines was sacked by the Vandals (277 and 407), the Goths (414), and the Franks led by Theodobert, son of Chilpéric, in 574.

According to the town's website, the oldest document mentioning Pradines and Flaynac is the will of an archdeacon of Cahors named Benjamin, dated 945. The bishops of Cahors owned a country house in Pradines, where, towards the end of the 13th century, they built a fortified castle, which they inhabited until the 16th century, before deciding to settle on the other bank of the Lot, opposite, at the Château de Mercuès.

In 1246, Bishop Géraud V Barasc, to free himself from significant debts he had incurred, ceded the fiefs of Pradines and Cessac to a certain Arnauld Béraldi, but retained his right to justice. The banker Béraldi belonged to an old Cahors banking family. During the Hundred Years' War, the great Anglo-Gascon companies besieged Pradines four times, but it never fell into their hands. They nevertheless left a ruined region. In 1470, the Bishop of Cahors, Antoine d'Alamand, granted his customs to the inhabitants of Pradines. The church was rebuilt.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, Pradines became a farm for the powerful (lawyers, magistrates of the Court of Aids, etc.) and the wealthy bourgeoisie of Cahors, who purchased land and had it produced by the Pradines farmers. With the Revolution, the bell tower was demolished, and the ecclesiastical property was auctioned and divided among the residents.

The boundaries of the commune were not established until 1860. The commune is thus divided into four sections: Pradines, Labéraudie, Flaynac, and Flottes. A document from 1880 describes a primarily agricultural commune, living in relative prosperity. The phylloxera crisis of 1876-1877 affected the commune, which lost residents. In 1940, the town was almost hit by a German bomb dropped on Cahors; One of the bombs arrived in the Lot, which caused the biggest flood in Pradines.

Olivier Touzeau, 1 June 2025

Flag of Pradines

No local flag observed with a municipal emblem. In the office of the mayor, a cermonial fringed tricolore flag can be seen; it bears the words "République française / Commune de
(Pradines)". Source: article in La Dépêche du Midi, January 2021.

Olivier Touzeau, 1 June 2025