Exploring the area 

Recently listed among "the most beautiful villages in France", Puycelsi was built around the year 1000 by the monks of the Abbey of'Aurillac.

Though Puycelsi is not a bastide, because of its fortified aspect the village completes the introduction of the visitor to the history of the Bastides. The ramparts, constructed in the Middle Ages, have seven defensive towers and two gateways which still stand: the Irissou gate (the portcullis) and the gate of the Navistour (the tower is in the shape of a shuttle).

The village was built around an old Benedictine monastery of which there only remains today the imposing church dedicated to Saint Corneille. Puycelsi (mountain of the sky), still shows traces of its religious past with, around the village, the chapel of Saint Roch, built in 1703 to fulfil a vow against the plague, the chapel of Saint Jacme, which belonged to the Knights Templar of Vaour, as well as over the front doors of some houses, the monogram of Christ IHS, indicating that a small religious community (capelanie) was present.