Antiquity In 56 BC, the Roman Lucinius Crassus subdued the Bigeriones. It wasn't until 28 BC that the
Campon tribe was defeated by the Roman general Valerius Messala, near Payolle. For five centuries, the
Pax Romana reigned over the Upper Adour Valley. Bigorre began to be evangelized around the year 350. In the Campan Valley, the first church was built at Beaudéan.
Middle Ages The
Visigoths settled in Bigorre as early as 412 and remained there for a century. In 733, remnants of the Arab army (repelled at Poitiers by Charles Martel a year earlier) arrived in Campan. They were defeated by the Campones. The survivors settled on the right bank of the Adour River (in what would become the Cagot quarter) or in the Lesponne Valley. Between the mid-9th and mid-16th centuries, the inhabitants of Bigorre, including those of Campan, disputed amongst themselves and with outsiders over the boundaries of their various territories and their owners. The first boundary demarcation took place in 850, and further legal proceedings were held in 1524 to determine the ownership of the woods located above Lake Payolle. That same year, the Cistercian monks of Escaladieu Abbey donated part of their lands in the Gripp Valley to Cieutat and part to Campan. In 1360, Bigorre became English, following the Treaty of Brétigny. It remained so until 1368, when a revolt by the inhabitants allowed Bertrand du Guesclin to retake the county. In 1429, Campan was recognized as a "town," which allowed it to send two representatives to the Estates of Bigorre, which brought together representatives of the three estates each year. In 1470, the consuls of Campan obtained from Gaston IV, Count of Bigorre, the right to imprison. This was primarily to legalize an already existing practice.
Renaissance The Wars of Religion also impacted the Campan Valley. Montgomery's attempt to conquer Bigorre in 1568 did not reach Campan, but the walls of the fortified village were nonetheless rebuilt. The village contributed to the creation of a Catholic army by sending soldiers, a cow, and 28 écus (a local currency). In 1574, a reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants was attempted by Anthoine de Gramont, a knight of the king's order. It was unsuccessful. In 1582, the inhabitants of Campan obtained from Henry of Navarre the right to hold a market on Fridays, in exchange for bringing their own produce. At the end of the 16th century, between 1588 and 1589, a plague epidemic struck Bigorre, affecting Bagnères and Campan. It was stopped by the devotion of the inhabitants of Bagnères and other villages to Our Lady of Médous, following the orders of Liloye, a young woman to whom the Virgin Mary had appeared. The election of the village consuls was revised in 1594 with the drafting of a short set of internal regulations for the commune. The people of Campan sought to reconcile the practice of democracy with the growing powers of the consuls while also trying to avoid nepotism. From 1600 onward, a golden age began for the commune of Campan. There were 700 households, or 3,500 inhabitants throughout the valley, a third of whom lived in the town center. Trade flowed in and out of the valley: livestock and butter were exported, and wine and wheat were imported. Spain contributed to the wealth, through the employment of Campan residents as seasonal workers or through ongoing trade. Notaries, lawyers, teachers, doctors (general practitioners, surgeons, midwives, and apothecaries), innkeepers, millers, artists, and even a goldsmith settled in Campan. More manual trades such as mason, locksmith, carpenter, joiner, and blacksmith were also well represented. Finally, some residents of Campan obtained positions in the upper echelons of the state, particularly in administration, taxation, and the Water and Forestry service. In 1607, Campan was annexed to the Crown as a patrimonial property, and the town confirmed that it
recognized no other lord than the king. The plague epidemic of 1628, originating in Toulouse, completely spared the valley. This was not the case with the epidemic of 1653. It reached Bagnères in August, then Campan in September. Despite the apothecary's elixirs and ointments, despite the efforts of the health officers to maintain public health, and despite the care provided by the Capuchin friars of Médous, the epidemic wreaked havoc and spread throughout the valley. The hamlet of La Seoube saw only one survivor out of its 400 inhabitants. Notarial acts were reduced by a factor of five during the year. This plague earned the inhabitants of Campan the right to be exempted from taxes in 1654. In 1694, a fire ravaged a large part of the town: seventy houses, the market hall, and the church were consumed by the flames. The fire was caused by two thieves from the Neste Valley. Pursued for their thefts, they set fire to a disreputable tavern in an attempt to take advantage of the confusion to escape. The two thieves were apprehended during a manhunt in the woods of Escaladieu, organized by the abbey and the communes of Bonnemazon and Cieutat. They were taken to Toulouse where they were tried and condemned to be burned alive. , columns in Campan marble. In 1700, the renowned cabinetmaker André-Charles Boulle incorporated Campan marble into his furniture, combining it with ebony, pewter, copper, and tortoiseshell. In 1728, 1762, 1774, and 1776, women were emancipated by their fathers, before a notary, so that they
could act, conduct business, and negotiate in their own names. Women played a particular role in the Campan Valley, since a family's inheritance went to the firstborn child, even if it was a girl. In 1784, Pierre Bernard Palassou wrote that a cave with an inscription recounts the visit of the Countess of Brionne to this site in 1766. Heinrich August Ottokar Reichard specifies that this cave is located on the right bank of the Adour River at the foot of the Montagne Grise (Grey Mountain). Pierre Henri Valenciennes, for his part, mentions the disappearance of the cave's stalactites. In 1779, Nicolas Gobet mentions in Campan the presence of copper mines, a concession held by Messrs. Thorin and Poli.
French Revolution On February 29, 1776, the king, during his council at Versailles,
ordered the sale and alienation of the seigneury of Campan to the highest and final bidder. The inhabitants of Campan were thus forced to repurchase their own property, sending a representative to Paris. They attempted to plead their case with the intendant of Auch, appointed by the king, but to no avail. A few years later, in 1779, the king's reforms to municipal regulations reached Campan. These reforms mandated a mayor, a deputy mayor, two aldermen, six councilors, a representative, and a clerk, replacing the four consuls and two guards previously elected. The mayor would be appointed by the king. The commune addressed a petition to the king, proposing
that His Majesty grant them, in exchange for payment, the privilege of electing six consuls annually, according to ancient custom, distributed among the districts, without a mayor or deputy mayor. The king agreed in exchange for two thousand livres. However, he continued to take an interest in the commune. In 1782, he reappointed the same man from Campan as first consul, the same man who had been elected to that position in 1780. This reappointment greatly displeased the inhabitants and the first consul himself. Yet, during the inquiry into the parishes requested by the Bishop of Bigorre in 1783, when asked "Who is the lord of the parish?", Campan replied, "We have no other lord than the king." In 1780, the people of Campan were described to Marshal Richelieu as being
rebellious, independent, and causing the Count of Beaudéan great distress. During those same years, the people of Campania also had difficulties with Abbots Fatta, then Torné.
Napoleonic era In 1820, Campan, with 4,329 inhabitants, was the third largest town in the department after Tarbes and Bagnères-de-Bigorre. Fifty mills were operating there in 1825. In 1821, Cyprien-Prosper Brard, in his work on mineralogy, mentions the three types of Campan marble: red, green, and Isabella.[44] He also mentions four Campan marble columns in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Paris, in the gallery of Old Masters (Salle de la Diane). Pierre Toussaint de La Boulinière writes that Campan marble was widely used during the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV, notably for the Grand Trianon and Versailles. Campan marble was also used by Barthélemy Prieur in the Celestines Church in Paris for the monument to the heart of Constable Anne de Montmorency. In 1822, Grigori Vladimirovitch Orlov described the customs of the inhabitants of Campan.
Contemporary era 20th century In the 1960s, an experimental holiday village was established in the hamlet of Gripp, under the management of the Société Nationale des Pétroles d'Aquitaine (now Elf Aquitaine), which wanted to offer its employees a winter resort near La Mongie and a summer camp in the mountains for their children. This village, established in July 1967, comprised around twenty bubble houses designed by the architect and urban planner Jean-Benjamin Maneval. These bubbles, prefabricated in a factory, were assembled on-site under the architect's supervision, as evidenced by a photographic report taken at the time and posted online by his daughter, Virginie. Each unit consisted of six interlocking shells suspended from a metal frame resting on a concrete base supporting the floor, the whole structure being topped with a hemispherical dome. Each bubble, measuring 36 square meters, could accommodate up to six people and included all modern comforts. The experimental village was dismantled in 1998, but one of the bubbles (a white one) was acquired by the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Saint-Étienne Métropole for its 2006 exhibition. Another model of these bubbles, dating from 1968 and brown in color, was exhibited by Galerie Rousse at the Milan Triennale in 2015. By decree of March 29, 2019, part of the territory of the commune of
Arreau was annexed to the commune of Campan. == Administration ==