Although only one gate and a few pieces of the ramparts of the old fortified town remain, Besse-et-Saint-Anastaise has preserved many squares and shops reminiscing of its past as a rich and prosperous commercial hub. Each square had its own speciality: wheat trade for the Place Centrale, now renamed Place du Docteur Alfred Pipet, or the Saint-Nectaire cheese on the present-day Place de la Gayme (photo), formerly called Place au Blanc, after the name of the cheese before maturing.