The Seuil de Naurouze is a strategic location in the operation and water supply of the Canal du Midi. The highest point on the canal route, it is the birthplace as a watershed.
Framed by the Ocean Lock and the Mediterranean Lock, it is from this site that the waters carried by the Rigole de la Plaine are distributed from one slope to the other.
The birthplace of
canal du midi
Legend tells us that one fine day, Pierre Paul Riquet, observing the waters of the Grave fountain, discovered that the waters of this fountain were divided into two streams flowing one towards the Garonne, the other towards the Aude. This is how the inventor of the Canal du Midi would have had the first thought of establishing here the culmination of the work which would make him famous.
La gully of the plain carries water from the Montagne Noire to the watershed, the famous Seuil de Naurouze, also called the Lauragais threshold. It goes around the octagonal basin, now filled in, to arrive at the highest point of the entire canal route. It is at this precise point that the water divides in two to take the path of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
The avenue of bicentennial plane trees welcomes you for a particularly pleasant walk.
Beyond that, explanatory panels will allow you to follow a route, to understand the architecture and the purpose of the place.
Don't miss the obelisk erected in memory of Pierre Paul Riquet!
Contact information
Where can I park to access the Seuil de Naurouze?
A little bit of history
Riquet designs a port project in Naurouze at the end of 1668-1669 located at the junction of the canal and the channel of the plain coming from Revel. The inventor wishes to use the strategic location of the site to design a major development project to the glory of the King. He thought that the junction between the canal and the Plaine channel, made navigable as far as Revel, would ensure an influx of goods to Naurouze which would quickly become a commercial node.
The Naurouze basin was completed in May 1673 but Riquet's major project to place a port there was abandoned. The creation of a competing port in Castelnaudary, coupled with Riquet's financial problems, caused the project to be abandoned.
Following the digging of Naurouze, the brick was exchanged for stone at the locks.
In order to reduce the cost of transporting this heavy material used in large quantities, the traditional extraction sites closest to the construction site are then favored with the gradual flooding of the canal.
Too often silted up and becoming useless, the Naurouze basin was very quickly filled in, but the old route remains visible thanks to the water which surrounds the site.
Le Naurouze mill, located at the downstream end of the Rigole de la plaine, was the first mill to see the light of day in 1670. It used the waters of the Rigole. Attached to the canal property, it is transformed into flour mill in 1832 and operated until 1985.
Heart stroke
Discover our territory on foot and by bike. Let yourself be guided !
To discover
Be curious, go back in time through the streets of the old town.
