The churchyard

On a map or aerial view of Ibos, one can see the layout of the houses, arranged in a circle around the collegiate church and its oval cemetery, indicating a former ecclesiastical enclosure. Church enclosures first appeared in the 11th and 12th centuries in areas where rural communities and their property (such as livestock) could not be protected by the Count of Bigorre or his vassals. These enclosures, which also housed the cemetery, were inspired by the ‘Peace of God’ movement, which sanctified the space around churches by prohibiting armed men from entering them. In Saint-Laurent d’Ibos, the cemetery extends to a radius of around forty metres around the Collegiate Church. It is thought to correspond to an early form of the church enclosure, which was subsequently enlarged. The streets currently surrounding the site were originally ditches (featuring a filtration well that collected some of the water), which were only filled in during the 19th century. Here, in an exceptional case for Bigorre, the enclosure proved so attractive that it had to be enlarged on several occasions to accommodate an ever-growing population. A second circle was thus added to the edge of the first enclosure, consisting of two rows of houses separated by an inner lane, and which was itself fortified and surrounded by a moat. 
In the 13th century, Ibos was referred to as a *castrum* – a castle or fortress. In 1304, mention is made of a ‘barbican’, an advanced fortification defending access to the church enclosure and the church itself. It was large enough to accommodate the community’s meetings, where deliberations took place. These defences were destroyed from the 16th century onwards. Ibos is a special case in Bigorre: whilst many communities had an ecclesiastical enclosure (Azereix, Juillan, Lagarde… to name but a few neighbouring villages), Ibos is the only one whose town planning developed around its ecclesiastical enclosure.