Auvillar

Auvillar
region	Occitania
Department	Tarn-et-Garonne
Arrondissement	Castelsarrasin
Canton	Garonne Lomagne Brulhois
Community association	Deux Rives
Coordinates	44 ° 4 ′  N , 0 ° 54 ′  E Coordinates: 44 ° 4 ′  N , 0 ° 54 ′  E
height	52-166 m
surface	15.60 km 2
Residents	918 (January 1, 2017)
Population density	59 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code	82340
INSEE code	82008
Website	www.auvillar.fr
The Church of St. Pierre

Auvillar is a French commune in the department of Tarn-et-Garonne in the region Occitan (previously Midi-Pyrénées ). The medieval town with 918 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) is located in the Gascony region on the Garonne . It is located in the arrondissement of Castelsarrasin , was the capital of the canton of the same name and is now part of the Garonne-Lomagne-Brulhois canton . The GR 65 long-distance hiking trail runs through it , which largely follows the historical route of the French Way of St. James, Via Podiensis .

Auvillar has been named one of the most beautiful villages in France by the association Les plus beaux villages de France .

geography

The suspension bridge over the Garonne

The village of Auvillar is located on a rocky promontory above the Garonne River between the towns of Agen on the Garonne and Montauban on the Tarn . The view from here extends far over the Garonne towards the coast of Aquitaine and Quercy . A suspension bridge connects the port of Auvillar with the town of Espalais on the left bank of the Garonne. The nearest major French cities are Toulouse (68 km) in the southeast, Bordeaux (146 km) in the northwest and Montpellier (244 km) in the east.

history

The marketplace

The place, with the name Auvillar derived from the Latin Alta Villa , was originally a fortified Roman settlement.

In the 10th century, the place was ravaged by numerous attacks by the Normans who broke in with their ships from the Atlantic over the Garonne. In the 11th century Auvillar was part of the county of Vicomtes d'Auvillar et de Lomagne , while the Counts of Armagnac ruled the area in the 14th and 15th centuries . Eventually Auvillar came under the influence of the kings of Navarre . In 1589, when Henry IV took office , it became part of the Kingdom of France.

The historical legacy of Auvillar is that the village is on the road ( GR 65 - Via Podiensis ) to Santiago de Compostela . As a fortified city on the Garonne , Auvillar was an important strategic place and therefore affected by all the conflicts that took place in this area in the Middle Ages . These include above all the crusade against the Albigensians (1209–1229), the Hundred Years War against the English (1337–1453) and the Wars of Religion (1562–1598) in France.

From the 17th to the 19th century, Auvillar owed its prosperity to the faience manufacture (pottery) and the production of goose feathers for writing. At the beginning of the 19th century, up to 3,000 ships a year were handled at the port. From 1836 onwards, however, the population development declined. Only at the end of the 20th century did the population stabilize again.

Number of inhabitants
(source:)

year	1793	1836	1861	1891	1921	1954	1968	1982	1990	1999	2006	2015
Residents	2,220	2,274	1,863	1,319	825	884	837	807	921	876	994	926
From 1962 official figures excluding residents with a second residence

Way of St. James ( Via Podiensis )

There are two pilgrim hostels (French: Gîte d'étape ), hotels and private rooms (French: Chambre d'hôtes ), as well as a tourist information center.

The path continues through the hilly landscape of Gascony over streams and small rivers through agricultural areas via Saint-Antoine to Lectoure . Other accommodations on the way to Lectoure are in Saint-Antoine, Flamarens , Miradoux and Castet-Arrouy. The route D953 - D23 leads to Lectoure as a road connection .

Attractions

The city gate of Auvillar

Historic granary

See also: List of Monuments historiques in Auvillar

• Tour de l'Horloge (Eng. Clock tower): The city gate was built in the 17th century and houses a permanent exhibition about shipping on the Garonne.
• The market square with arcades from the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as the adjoining half-timbered houses from the 16th century with a grain silo on the east side under the arcades.
• Le Port (dt. The port) was in earlier times a shipping center and the customs office on the Garonne .
• The chapel of St. Catherine, the patron saint of sailors, stands near the port. It was built from 1305–1313 by Pope Clement V. On its facade there is a Christ monogram from the Merovingian era.
• The Church of St. Pierre of the former priory of the Benedictine dates from the 12th-14th Century and was restored in the 17th and 19th centuries.

economy

In 2015 , around 70% of the active population in the Arrondissement of Castelsarrasin was employed in the service sector and around 10% in agriculture. The main focus of agricultural production is: keeping angora goats with the production of cheese and mohair , breeding cattle, pigs, sheep and poultry and growing wine and fruit.

Personalities

• Jean Baptiste de Bressolles (1753-1838), general

literature

• Bettina Forst: French Way of St. James. From Le Puy-en-Velay to Roncesvalles. All stages - with variants and height profiles. Bergverlag Rother, Munich (recte: Ottobrunn) 2007, ISBN 978-3-7633-4350-8 ( Rother hiking guide ).
• Bert Teklenborg: Cycling along the Camino de Santiago. From the Rhine to the western end of Europe. (Cycling guide, route planner). 3rd revised edition. Publishing House Tyrolia, Innsbruck 2007, ISBN 978-3-7022-2626-8 .

Web links

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

• Office de Tourisme (French)
• Along the Via Podiensis
• Auvillar in detail (private page)
• Auvillar on cartesfrance.fr (French)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Auvillar on Les plus Beaux Villages de France (French).
2. ↑ community information on annuaire-mairie.fr (French) Retrieved on January 21 of 2010.
3. ^ Auvillar on Cassini.ehess.fr (French), accessed on February 4, 2010.
4. ↑ INSEE Table T8 EMP (French) Accessed in May 2019.
5. ↑ Auvillar on aoc-igp.fr (French).

Way of St. James " Via Podiensis "

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