Écoyeux

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Écoyeux
Écoyeux (France)
Écoyeux
region Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department Charente-Maritime
Arrondissement Saintes
Canton Chaniers
Community association Saintes
Coordinates 45 ° 49 ′  N , 0 ° 30 ′  W Coordinates: 45 ° 49 ′  N , 0 ° 30 ′  W
height 43-94 m
surface 20.34 km 2
Residents 1,354 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 67 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 17770
INSEE code 17147

Écoyeux - tower of the town hall and crossing tower of the church

Écoyeux is a place and a western French community ( commune ) with 1,354 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in the Charente-Maritime in the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine . The place was on a branch route of the pilgrimage route ( Via Turonensis ) to Santiago de Compostela .

location

The place is in the Saintonge landscape at an altitude of about 50 meters above sea level. d. M. on the river Bramerit and is located about 15 kilometers (driving distance) northeast of Saintes or about 24 kilometers northwest of the city of Cognac . The capital of the canton, Burie , is only about 11 kilometers south-east.

Population development

year 1968 1975 1982 1990 1999 2007 2012
Residents 650 623 685 804 940 1,152 1,280

In the 19th century the population of the municipality increased from around 1,300 to over 1,500 at times. As a result of the loss of jobs due to the phylloxera crisis and the mechanization of agriculture , the number of inhabitants fell to the lows of the 1960s to 1980s.

economy

Écuyeux served the surrounding villages as a trade and handicraft center as early as the Middle Ages. In 1500 the place got the right to organize a national fair three times a year. Agriculture and viticulture have determined the economic life of the place for centuries; Although the place belongs to the Fins Bois of the Cognac wine-growing region , the vast majority of the grapes pressed here are processed into wine, which is marketed through the Charentais and Pineau des Charentes appellations. Since the 1980s tourism has been added as a source of income in the form of renting holiday apartments.

history

The history of Écoyeux goes back to Gallo-Roman times when a country estate ( villa rustica ) called Escoïus is mentioned. No news has come down to us from medieval times; The rather imposing church building is likely to have been a Benedictine priory church , which received additional income due to its location near the pilgrimage route to Santiago. In 1652 132 people died of a plague epidemic; some families then emigrated to Québec . In 1881 the Abbé Braud described the church and sacristy as being as shabby as the spiritual and religious constitution of the population.

Attractions

Saint Vivien Church

See also: List of Monuments historiques in Écoyeux

  • The single-nave church of Saint-Vivien, a Romanesque-style building that was not given its current form until the 15th century, is a fortified church that offered the townspeople, but also the Santiago pilgrims, protection from marauding bands of robbers who came after the end of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) became unemployed and made the area unsafe. Often they were former mercenaries who knew nothing about anything other than using force, looting and murdering. Some villages responded by building fortified churches. The Romanesque apse is structured by massive buttresses or half-column templates. Below the eaves there is a blind arcade structure that can be found in many churches in Saintonge. The west facade, the side towers of which partially overlap the facade structure, has a three-part design on the ground floor: a tympanum-free central portal and two smaller side blind portals with their beautiful masonry made of inclined stones together create the ancient triumphal arch motif . The archivolts of the central portal are decorated with abstract vegetable motifs. Above this, a castle-like architecture was created without decoration and optically strengthened by a battlement weir, which was added imaginatively in the 19th century. The single nave interior of the church is kept extremely simple. The church was recognized as a monument historique in 1907 .
  • The building complex, also known as the 'Old Castle' ( château vieux ), with a beautiful octagonal stair tower from the Renaissance period , now serves as the town hall ( mairie ).
  • The Château d'Écoyeux or Château de Polignac , a manor house from the 17th century, which was only partially completed and never inhabited by its owners, is privately owned and has been registered as a monument historique since 1971 .

literature

  • Le Patrimoine des Communes de la Charente-Maritime. Flohic Editions, Volume 1, Paris 2002, ISBN 2-84234-129-5 , pp. 173-174.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Église Saint-Vivien, Écoyeux in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  2. ↑ The Poulignac family from Angoumois changed their name to Polignac in 1585; their attempt to be recognized as a relative of the younger Polignac family from the Velay was rejected by the royal court.
  3. ↑ Château de Polignac, Écoyeux in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)

Web links

Commons : Écoyeux  - collection of images, videos and audio files