The presence of stone tools and cut flints (scrapers, fragments of axes, arrow heads) found in the Commune, testify that the site of LOZE was occupied very early on in history. This evidence dating back to the Palaeolithic and Neolithic times, shows that man was attracted to the Causses nearly 10,000 years before Christ. Occupation of the site during the Gallo-Roman period is confirmed by an archaeological site at St Alby ( today within the limits of the military camp) and a Roman route (nowadays dirt tracks) linking Toulouse to Cahors and Rodez. On the other hand, as yet unproved, some historians see in St Alby, the remains of the celebrated site of Uxellodunum, located, as reported by Julius Caesar, on the border of the Ruthènes and Cadourques territories.
In the 7th century St Didier ( known also as St Géry), Bishop of Cahors and a friend of King Dagobert and St Eloy, built many churches in the Quercy.
A pre-Roman chapel (of which part of a wall still existed in 1988) dedicated to St Géry, was situated at the entrance of the Grottos of St Géry.
The first mention of a church at LOZE was made in a document dated 1112. In 1236 this church was integrated into the dependencies of the Knights of the Temple at Lacapelle Livron.
Next to the village of LOZE was the castle of La Roque de Loze (located in a hamlet called Les Tourrettes) belonging to the powerful feudal Counts of Toulouse, then to the stately family of De Jean. The authority of the Kings of France being very weak in the region these families ruled the area until the 15th century when it fell to the Lord of St Projet whose ownership continued for more than 200 years
In the 14th and 15th centuries, during the Hundred Years War, the region was devastated and the village of LOZE badly damaged. The church was reconstructed in 1461.
In the Middle Ages, the village was fortified by small stone walls, rather than by a continuous rampart. As LOZE had then neither a château nor a tower, the bell tower of the church was used as a fortification. It has a protruding gallery supported by Corbels (stone brackets) with openings through which missiles could be dropped.
The time of the Religious Wars was a time of great trouble for the Quercy. Protestants held the principal cities in the area . Caylus stayed Catholic, St Antonin converted to the “new religion” and Loze joined Protestantism for just a few days.
During the French Revolution, the first local council of LOZE was elected on 21st February 1790, replacing the previous institutions of Loze, Saillagol and St Projet.
By the end of the eighteen hundreds, the military authorities set up a firing range at Cantayrac where manoeuvres regularly took place. This became a military camp in 1933. Because of the requisition of land and the displacement of the residents (carried out with suitable compensation), the land area of population of LOZE was reduced by half.
The population grew until the 19th century, with a maximum of 575 inhabitants in 1846. After that, emigration, combined with lower birth rate, led to a decline in the population which continued until 1975. Happily, the population is again increasing and today numbers 118 proud Lozois.
We would like to thank Etienne Rondin and ‘The Society for the Historical Research of Loze’ for their work about the Commune, which has been our main source of information.
