Le Patec

The word Patec, or Pateck, comes from the ancient notion of Patus indicating a group of indivisible goods, destined for common use.
This building, listed as a historical monument, is still a strong symbolic landmark of Rayol. In Rayol, the square was used as a threshing floor for cereals, and there was also a communal warehouse, a well and a bread oven.
The threshing floor was exposed to the wind, and it was easy to remove the twigs and other oat bales from the grain by sending it into the air with a wooden shovel or with a van, a kind of flat basket designed for this purpose. The wind passing through the grains thrown in the air carried away the twigs, leaving the much heavier and perfectly clean grains to fall back to the vertical.
In 1926, a large circular pergola was built on this panoramic square on dry stone pillars, the starting point of the stairs leading to the sea.
The model of the Patec pergola was used in many of the Rayolais gardens, but this time in reinforced concrete.
Nowadays, the square is used for local events.