Travel Guide Sentin

Capital of the Biros valley, Sentein keeps the traces of a glorious past. As soon as you enter the village, you can see the bell tower. With its 42 meters, it is the third of Couserans after Massat and Saint-Girons. A jewel of Franco-Catalan Romanesque art, the church has preserved the fortified enclosure that allowed the inhabitants to protect themselves from exactions. It houses magnificent frescoes. This church is of great wealth, even if the ravages of time and the choice of men have somewhat dismantled it. For a long time, Sentein has lived from ancient pastoral and commercial movements with its Spanish neighbor of the Val d'Arann, a few hours walk away, through the narrow ridges that surround the valley. Since the middle of the 19th century, the zinc and lead mines and the thermal baths have transformed the village into a small town that reached 3,000 inhabitants in 1846. Today the population is reduced to a few dozen souls. Because of the closure of the mines and the springs, which are poorly compensated by electricity, the town has become very peaceful. A few kilometers away, pulleys are still hanging in the air and the big buildings are abandoned. The mines, now ghostly, offer a landscape worthy of the American West. The commune is an integral part of the regional natural park of the Ariège Pyrenees thanks to the quality of its natural heritage. Three sites are labelled Natura 2000 (the valley of Isard, the mail of Bulard and the peaks of Maubermé, Serre-Haute and Crabère "). It is also classified as a natural area of ecological, faunistic and floristic interest.