Aveyron (Occitan: Avairon) is a department in southern France named after the Aveyron River.History
Aveyron is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790.

The first known historical inhabitants of the region were the Rutenii tribe, but the area was inhabited previously to this, boasting many prehistoric ruins.


Geography
The department is part of the current Midi-Pyrénées region. It is surrounded by the départements of Tarn, Tarn-et-Garonne, Lot, Hérault, Gard, Lozère, and Cantal. Three main plateau compose the department: Aubrac, Lévézou and Larzac.

The highest point in the department is the summit of Mailhebuau at 1469 m (Plateau of Aubrac).


 Demographics
The inhabitants of the department are called Aveyronnais, inhabitants of Rodez are called Ruthénois, based on the first Roman settlers, the rutenii.


Tourism
Aveyron contains a part of the Cévennes National Park. Two well known tourist attractions are the castle of Najac, a medieval ruin perched high on a hill, and the abbey of Loc-Dieu, located near Martiel in a region with many dolmens. The small city of Millau is the site of the world's tallest bridge, the Millau viaduct, opened by President Chirac in December 2004.

Activities include horseriding, fishing, swimming in the Lacs du Lévézou and hiking/camping. The inhabitants are also very good craftsmen, and Aveyron is full of various craft objects, handmade, that can be found locally. Examples include the couteau de Laguiole, the world famous Roquefort cheese, from the village of the same name and other local produce. Markets take place every Saturday on market places around the region.

Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance is the commune where Victor of Aveyron was found in the late 18th century.
The history of this rural commune is inseparable from that of its abbey. Founded by the compagnons de Saint Bernard, in a fertile valley with gentle wooded slopes, it was the first Cistercian abbey built in Rouergue in the 12th century. By its simplicity, rigour and quality, this monastic architecture is one of the most important spiritual and artistic monuments in the western world. Despite the tribulations of the 100 Years War the Wars of Religion and the French Revolution, which finally put an end to monastic life, half of the buildings of Sylvanès abbey were preserved: the church itself is a masterpiece of Cistercian art, with its wide nave with chapels sandwiched between interior buttresses, bearing the hallmark of the transitional period between the Romanesque and the local Gothic architecture. It boasts a gallery of vaulted cloisters opening out onto a chapter house with ornate, gemeled windows dating from the 12th century, the former sacristy with its sculpted typanum and, finally, the great hall with its two naves, called the “scriptorium” (13th century).
Sylvanès is an architectural gem, one of the best known of its style in France and by all Romanesque art specialists abroad. Thirty years ago, the abbey was completely restored to its former glory, driven by the association, Amis de l’Abbaye de Sylvanès, and aided by local, regional and national government agencies, as well as private funding. It was well worth preserving. Today, it has become an internationally famous cultural centre…
The abbey offers an eclectic programme of cultural, spiritual and musical events, including an international festival of religious music, a programme of research, training and composition of works related to the Lithurgy and religious arts, singing in all its forms, (songs, choral works, solo recitals, Gregorian chant), theatre, dance, and visual arts (iconography and frescoes). Meetings and seminars are held on cultural themes, and ecumenical dialogues are opened between religions. The abbey is also a site for experimental art education, with classes organised on heritage, culture and art for children and young people.
The château de Gissac, a former manor house from the 16th - 19th centuries, has been renovated and converted into a comfortable hotel, thanks to the development of the cultural activities at Sylvanès.
From the village square at one end to the imposing château at the other, the village extends along its main street in the form of a bastide. In Najac, the bastide quarter takes its form at the point where the road widens out into a huge square.

A medieval new town, Villefranche was founded in 1252 by Alphonse de Poitiers, Comte de Toulouse and brother of the King Saint-Louis. Its layout is typical of a bastide town, with regular streets intersecting at right angles and converging towards a central square bordered by arcades, the economic heart to the town. Today, it is the scene of a lively, weekly market.
At Villeneuve, the bastide was grafted onto a Romanesque shelter which was part of a monastery. From such inauspicious beginnings, Villeneuve became a 'bastide comtale' and then a 'bastide royale' at the end of the 13th century
A medieval village classed among the "plus beaux villages de France", Sauveterre-de-Rouergue is a magnificent 13th century bastide royale, built around a central square with arcades revealing superb half-timbered houses.
Founded in 1280 by Raymond De Calmont, Bishop of Rodez, as a rival to Villefranche, the bastide is constructed on a granite plateau which overlooks the Aveyron valley, where numerous smiths beat out their copper during the middle ages. Its isolated location explains the simplicity of the layout, with the market place occupying the central square, joined by a 14th-15th century collegial