The Loze region is believed to have been inhabited by humans from 10,000 years before the birth of Christ. In the 7th century the Bishop of Cahors, Saint-Didier, built a chapel at the entrance to Saint-Gery's caves. As for the village itself, we know that in 1112 a church was originally built on the present site of the church of Saint-Martins.
The first official papers show an administrative trace dating from the aftermath of the French Revolution. These documents were in regard to the lands belonging to the Lords of the villages of St. Projet and Loze. In 1802 a geometrical engineer was dispatched to the commune to carry out the task of determining the proportionally to the number of residents, this calculation meant that Loze was allocated a third of the ground. Today, those lands make up part of the current Caylus military base.
At that time there were 600 parcels of land for the Loze commune, which had 585 inhabitants at that time. The surface area of these lots varied depending on the plot's richness and soil composition. The division was very geometric, but when there was a water point, the geometrician made sure that as many plots as possible had access to it.
In the drawing of lots, 1 lot per inhabitant was allocated. 15 plots remained, of which contained soil of a poor quality.
LOZE LAND OF STONE
The name given to the village comes from the word lauze, a limestone slab 5 to 6 centimetres thick which was used to cover the roofs. To this day, only one building is still covered with lauze, but others have retained their gables.
The allotted lands were located on the plateau, in very rocky ground. The peasants, then owners, cultivated them. For that purpose, they extracted all the stones from the arable land and placed them on the edge of the fields; the low walls thus built defined the boundaries of the properties.
The current owners maintain the stone walls, rebuilding them when necessary. These kilometres of low walls add to the charm and beauty of our region and maintain a biodiversity that it is pleasant to contemplate today.
The village of Loze has a peculiarity. It takes a keen sense of observation to realise it! The houses turn their backs on each other .... The facades are not facing each other and are, for the most part surrounded by a piece of land. Many of them were built at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century and almost all are based on the same model.
The homes had only two rooms a kitchen and a bedroom, each measuring about 5 by 5 metres. A floor under the roof, with a simple window as access, was used to store hay. The covering of the roof was, as previously stated made of stone.
The kitchen was equipped with a door, a single window, a fireplace, an ashtray (a cavity in the wall used not only to store the ashes of the atrium and to be used later for washing or the fertilizing of the gardens, but also for the conservation of food), a saloon, a water stone (or sink), a cupboard - several niches in the walls. Everything was made of stone. The room was very sombre and simple.
Most of the houses had a cistern and a bread oven.
Nowadays, apart from those houses and farmsteads that are included in the area of the military camp, almost all the buildings and houses of the commune of Loze are not of the same structure as the original buildings. They have evolved over time and have been renovated, enlarged and even raised, then equipped with all the elements for modern living.
