Auvergne

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Auvergne (disambiguation) .

Auvergne Former French Region (until 2015)
Basic data
Today part of	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Administrative headquarters	Clermont-Ferrand
population  - total January 1, 2017  - density	1,364,156 inhabitants 52.4 inhabitants per km²
surface  - total  - share in France :	26,013 km² 4.1%
Departments	4th
Arrondissements	14th
Cantons	158
Communities	1.310
Formerly ISO 3166-2 code	FR-C

Auvergne volcanic landscape

The Auvergne ( Occitan Auvèrnhe ) is a landscape in central France . From 1960 to 2015, the Auvergne was an administrative region consisting of the departments of Puy-de-Dôme , Cantal , Haute-Loire and Allier was. It had an area of ​​26,013 km² and 1,364,156 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017). The capital of the region was Clermont-Ferrand .

geography

A large part of the Auvergne region belongs to the volcanic Central Massif with the Chaîne des Puys and Monts Dore volcanic chains . The highest mountains are the Puy de Sancy (1886 m) and the Plomb du Cantal (1852 m); the most famous volcanic cone is the Puy de Dôme (1465 m). Landscapes with a historically and / or geographically independent character are the Bourbonnais , Limagne , Livradois and Velay . Numerous rivers have their source in or near the green Auvergne - the best known are the Loire , which flows north and its tributary, the Allier and the Dordogne , which drains to the south-west .

coat of arms

Description: A red church flag in gold with a green border.

See also : List of coats of arms with the emblem of the Count Palatine of Tübingen

history

As that of Saint-Nectaire standing dolmens , but also prove other prehistoric finds (→ Web link), the Auvergne was roamed by prehistoric man. The Celts , Romans , Visigoths and Franks left hardly any archaeological traces, although their presence has been handed down through written documents.

The Auvergne is one of the historic provinces of France. The name of the region is derived from the Arverni , a Gauls tribe who settled in this area at the time of the Roman conquest . In late antiquity , the Auvergne was conquered by the Visigoths under Eurich in the 1970s (see also Sidonius Apollinaris ) and became part of the Franconian Empire at the beginning of the 6th century .

During the Middle Ages, four domains emerged in the Auvergne. The county of Auvergne initially comprised the entire province, but during the 12th century the Bishop of Clermont established an independent rule in Clermont-Ferrand . Around 1155 the so-called Delfinat separated from Auvergne around the Monts Dore . In 1213 the Auvergne was occupied by royal troops, the count only received a small part of his former property in the east of the province. The larger remainder with the main town Riom remained in the royal possession ( terre royale d'Auvergne ), with which the Prince Alfons of Poitiers was endowed. After his death, this land came back to the crown until King John II formed the Duchy of Auvergne from it in 1360 for one of his sons.

In 1651 the county came to Frédéric-Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne, duc de Bouillon , who received the Auvergne and Albret in exchange for the strategically much more important Sedan and Raucourt . His descendants were deposed during the French Revolution . In 1790 the historical province was divided into the current departments. Haute-Loire and Allier also encompass parts of the historic provinces of Bourbonnais , Lyonnais and Languedoc .

With the establishment of the regions (1960), the Auvergne was rebuilt. In 1972 the region received the status of an établissement public under the direction of a regional prefect. The decentralization laws of 1982 gave the regions the status of collectivités territoriales ( territorial authorities ), which until then had only been enjoyed by the municipalities and the départements. In 1986 the regional councils were directly elected for the first time. Since then, the region's powers vis-à-vis the central government in Paris have been gradually expanded.

On January 1, 2016, the Auvergne region merged with the neighboring Rhône-Alpes region to form a new region with the provisional name Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes .

population

Cities

The landscapes of the Auvergne

The most populous cities in Auvergne are:

city	Inhabitants (year)	Department
Clermont-Ferrand	143,886 (2017)	Puy-de-Dôme
Montluçon	35,653 (2017)	Allier
Aurillac	25,499 (2017)	Cantal
Vichy	24,166 (2017)	Allier
Cournon-d'Auvergne	20,043 (2017)	Puy-de-Dôme
Moulins	19,664 (2017)	Allier
Le Puy-en-Velay	18,995 (2017)	Haute Loire
Riom	19,180 (2017)	Puy-de-Dôme
Chamalières	17,173 (2017)	Puy-de-Dôme
Issoire	14,822 (2017)	Puy-de-Dôme

language

The language of the province is Auvergnatisch , a dialect of Occitan language , which is spoken in the three departments of Auvergne (Cantal, Haute-Loire and Puy-de-Dôme).

Political structure

The Auvergne region is divided into four departments:

Department	prefecture	ISO 3166-2	Arrondissements	Cantons	Communities	Inhabitants (year)	Area (km²)	Density (inh / km²)
Allier	Moulins	FR-03	3	35	320	337.988 (2017)	7,340	46
Cantal	Aurillac	FR-15	3	27	260	145.143 (2017)	5,726	25.3
Haute Loire	Le Puy-en-Velay	FR-43	3	35	260	227.283 (2017)	4,977	45.7
Puy-de-Dôme	Clermont-Ferrand	FR-63	5	61	470	653.742 (2017)	7,970	82

economy

For centuries, large parts of the rural population lived on farming and livestock farming (cattle, sheep, goats) on a self-sufficient basis ; Salers and Aubrac cattle are two typical cattle breeds in the Massif Central.

Today everyone is talking about the region because of the cheese produced here (e.g. Bleu d'Auvergne , Cantal , Fourme d'Ambert , Salers and Saint-Nectaire ) , the wine (e.g. Saint-Pourçain and Côtes d ' Auvergne ) as well as the export of mineral water (e.g. Volvic ). Knife makers from Laguiole and Thiers are also known ; the pocket knives of the same name are manufactured there by the maîtres couteliers in elaborate manual work and sold all over the world. Industry plays a marginal role, but the Michelin plants in Clermont-Ferrand are among the world's leading tire manufacturers . There are numerous hydropower plants , mainly on the Tarn , the Dordogne , the Cère , the Los and the Truyère . The generation of wind energy has so far hardly played a role - probably for tourist reasons; However, in the spring of 2015, a system with seven wind turbines went into operation in the municipality of Saint-Nicolas-des-Biefs on the eastern edge of the Auvergne.

The Auvergne is a popular tourist destination - especially the largely untouched landscapes and the historically significant Romanesque churches (e.g. in Saint-Nectaire , Issoire , Orcival, etc.) attract many tourists. Because of its volcanic origin and many springs, there are also some health resorts in the Auvergne (especially Vichy ).

Compared with the average of the GDP of the EU , expressed in purchasing power standards , the region achieved an index of 91.3 (EU-27 = 100) of 2006.

and display information about the image

Winter landscape at the Puy de Dôme

Culture

Church of Saint-Saturnin with the Massif barlong and stone incrustations

• The Romanesque churches of the Auvergne, built by trained master builders and stone masons, with their structural dimensions , their crossbars ( massifs barlongs ) below the crossing towers and their decorative geometric stone incrustations, are among the highlights of medieval architecture in Europe.
• Several historical pilgrimage routes run through the Auvergne , such as B. the part of the Camino de Santiago ( Via Podiensis ) that begins in Le Puy or a branch line running through the Bourbonnais to Clermont , on which the pilgrimage church of Saint-Menoux is also located.
• On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II called for the first crusade for the 'Liberation of the Holy Land' at the Synod of Clermont .
• In the small town of La Chaise-Dieu , which was built around a Benedictine abbey , one of the most important international events for sacred music takes place every year in late summer .
• The composer Joseph Canteloube composed his songs from the Auvergne here in 1930, which were intended for voice and orchestra.
• The writer Clark Ashton Smith wrote a series of short stories based on the mythical region of Averoigne based.
• Volume 11 of the well-known comic series Asterix ( Asterix and the Arvernerschild , 1969) is devoted in detail to the typical and historical characteristics of the "Arvernerland".
• Particularly in rural areas of Auvergne, in addition to the French language also Auvergnatisch , a regional variant of Occitan spoken.
• The composer Camille Saint-Saëns composed his Rhapsodie d'Auvergne for piano and orchestra op.73 in 1884.

literature

• Johannes Baier (2020): The Chaîne des Puys in the Auvergne. - Fossils 37 (2): 46-56.

See also

• Auvergne county
• Duchy of Auvergne
• Dauphin of Auvergne
• Archdiocese of Clermont
• Diocese of Le Puy-en-Velay
• Order of Malta
• List of Presidents of the Auvergne Regional Council since 1986

Web links

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

Wiktionary: Auvergne  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Auvergne region (French)
• Auvergne, nature - photos + information (German)
• Auvergne, Romanesque - photos, links + information (French)
• Auvergne, Romanesque - photos, links + information (French Wikipedia)
• Auvergne, volcanoes, villages and landscapes - 2600 photos
• Auvergne, dolmen and menhirs - photos, further links + brief information (French, English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pluviosité en Auvergne. Retrieved April 20, 2018 (French). 
2. ↑ Regional GDP per inhabitant in the EU27. (PDF; 360 kB) Eurostat press release 23/2009

Coordinates: 45 ° 42 '  N , 3 ° 18'  E