Bélaye
| Bélaye | ||
|---|---|---|
|
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| region | Occitania | |
| Department | Lot | |
| Arrondissement | Cahors | |
| Canton | Luzech | |
| Community association | Vallée du Lot et du Vignoble | |
| Coordinates | 44 ° 28 ′ N , 1 ° 12 ′ E | |
| height | 80-274 m | |
| surface | 18.69 km 2 | |
| Residents | 224 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 12 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 46140 | |
| INSEE code | 46022 | |
| Website | www.belaye.com | |
 War memorial high above the Lot River valley |
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Bélaye is a French commune with 224 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Lot department in the Occitanie region (before 2016: Midi-Pyrénées ). The municipality belongs to the arrondissement of Cahors and the canton of Luzech .
The name is derived from the earlier name Billiacum ( Villa des Galliers Billios). Other theories interpret the name as a simplification of belle aigue ( German beautiful water ), a derivation of the ancient Bel-Air or the name given to an earlier cult site of the sun god Belen.
The inhabitants are called Belaycois and Belaycoises .
geography
Bélaye is about 20 km west of Cahors in the historic province of Quercy .
Bélaye is surrounded by the seven neighboring municipalities:
| Lagardelle | Prayssac | Anglars-Juillac |
| Grézels |
.svg)
|
Albas |
| Porte-du-Quercy | Carnac-Rouffiac |
Bélaye is located in the catchment area of the river Garonne on the left bank of the Lot .
Tributaries of the Lot cross the territory of the municipality,
- the Lissourgues with its tributaries,
- the Ruisseau de Baudenque and
- the Ruisseau des Albenquats,
- the Ruisseau de Rivel, which rises in Bélaye, and
- the Ruisseau de Saint-Matré with its tributary,
- the Ruisseau de Combe-Rantès, which rises in Bélaye, with its tributary,
- the Ruisseau de Combe-Longue, which also rises in Bélaye.
- the Ruisseau de Combe-Rantès, which rises in Bélaye, with its tributary,
history
Since the 13th century, Bélaye has been one of the most important places in the Quercy. It was the seat of an archpriesthood that included twenty parishes in the area. Due to its strategic location high above the Lot Valley, Bélaye was the scene of several battles between English and French troops during the Hundred Years War in the 14th century . Castles and churches were looted and devastated by Protestant troops in the Huguenot Wars during the occupation . At the beginning of the French Revolution, seat of a canton for a short time, but experienced a slow decline in the following period, especially at the end of the 19th century due to the destructive infestation of the vineyards by phylloxera and at the beginning of the 20th century due to the high blood toll of the First World War .
A legend tells that around 1340 Bélaye was besieged by the troops of three seigneurs who were on the side of the English King Edward III. fought, Raymond de Durfort, Seigneur of Fenouillet and of Lacapelle, Bernard Bonafous, Baron of Pestillac and Philippe Dejean, Seigneur of Les Junies. The village vigorously defended itself against the attacks behind the fortifications. Catinas, a street vendor, betrayed the Belaycois by pointing out a gate that was poorly guarded to the opposing side. Bélaye had fallen. After long negotiations with the Bishop of Cahors, the Seigneur von Bélaye agreed to give the village back in exchange for 3,000 Écu . After the occupiers had withdrawn, the Belaycois took revenge on Catinas. They locked him in a spiked barrel and threw it down the slope to the river.
Due to the law of June 4, 1853, Anglars-Juillac became independent with parts of the territories of the municipalities of Albas and Bélaye.
Population development
After records began, the population rose to a peak of around 1,200 by the first half of the 19th century. In the period that followed, the size of the community sank to around 200 inhabitants during short recovery phases until the 1980s, before a phase of stabilization at a level of around 230 inhabitants set in, which continues to this day.
| year | 1962 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2006 | 2011 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residents | 259 | 255 | 228 | 204 | 220 | 223 | 221 | 218 | 224 |
Attractions
Parish Church of Saint-Aignan
The church dedicated to Saint Anianus of Orléans is also called the "Great Church". Construction began in 1353, but it took until around 1480 to complete. It was destroyed during the Huguenot Wars in 1679 and masses were celebrated in the Sainte-Catherine church . In 1688 the archpriesthood was transferred to the Lazarists who, in 1721, initiated the restoration that gave the church its current appearance. The stonemason Pierre Vidal and the bricklayer J. Lacombe were entrusted with the restoration of the vault and the southern entrance portal . The extent of the work, which is believed to have been carried out in the 19th century, is more difficult to assess. The stained glass windows are signed by the glass painter Gustave Pierre Dagrant from Bordeaux and date from 1892 and 1894.
The church is located at the western end of the once fenced area within the city walls. A small part of this wall can still be seen as an extension of the west facade to the south. The relatively spacious church is made of ashlar and consists of three naves and a three-walled apse , which is higher than the nave . The north nave has preserved its windows in the form of three passages and a pointed arched entrance portal with double vaults. The western facade is interrupted by a narrow window with an ogival, rounded lintel and inside with a wide drapery . The entrance portal in the south has replaced an earlier entrance in the form of a segmental arch with pinnacles , as can be seen from the remains of stones. The church has been inscribed as a Monument historique since June 7, 1995 .
West facade with the rest of the city wall
Apse and north side
Entrance portal
View of the choir
Altarpiece
- Stained glass window
Parish Church of Notre-Dame de l'Assomption in Latour
The church is located in the hamlet of Latour in the eastern parish on the banks of the Lissourgues. The parish of Latour was a branch of Bélaye. Nothing is known about the origin of the church, the construction of which could date from the beginning of the 13th century. The northwest corner of the nave was probably rebuilt at the same time as the interior of the nave with a groin vault and the consecration of a bell in 1703. The roofs were renewed in the 19th century with the simultaneous erection of a neo-Gothic bell gable above the triumphal arch .
The church is built of ashlar with a single nave nave and a flat closed apse. This is covered with a pointed barrel vault, which is supported by a belt arch . The upper part of the triumphal arch is covered by the groin vault of the nave. The only original window that is bricked up today is on the longitudinal axis in the apse. It was a small ogival window with a rounded lintel. The small entrance on the south side is pointed arch-shaped with narrow wedge stones. The interior walls show traces of wall paintings and a liter funéraire that was applied directly to the stone.
Former rectory and ruins of the former parish church of Sainte-Catherine
Rectory
Entrance portal of the former Sainte-Catherine church
The former rectory was the home of the archpriest in the 13th century. In the north the castle of the bishops of Cahors joined, in the south on the church of Sainte-Catherine , also known as the "Little Church". The building is built around a wing that housed the former Sainte-Catherine church and the former prison. At the corner of the two buildings there is a passage that used to be the entrance to the citadel .
The Sainte-Catherine church was built in the 13th century and was the parish church and seat of the archpriesthood until the construction of the Saint-Aignan church in the 14th century. It was almost completely destroyed in the 19th century. The entrance portal has an archivolt with double curvature. The ridges that emphasize the edges rest on narrow pillars .
The west and south facades of the rectory, the entrance portal of the Sainte-Catherine church and the remains of the former curtain wall have been inscribed as Monument historique since April 17, 1984 .
Castle ruins
Around 1030 Kalsan de Bélaye donated the church of Pescadoires to the abbey in Moissac . In 1236, the position of the Seigneurs of Bélaye was weakened because they had to cede half of the tower and the entire hall of the castle, but also, for example, the toll for shipping to the Bishop of Cahors. This was probably now the only landlord of Bélaye, because the previous seigneurs are no longer mentioned in the writings in the following period. Members of the knight families, the most important of which were the Guiscard, Séguier, Grézels and Floiras, lived in the castle in the 13th and 14th centuries. After the Hundred Years War, the castle was abandoned by the nobles. It was captured by Protestant troops in 1579 and recaptured by Catholic troops, who subsequently destroyed it.
The castle as well as the former rectory and the churches are located on a rock that protrudes more than 130 meters above the level of the Lot. On the south side the hill drops steeply down to the Ruisseau de Rivel. In the center of the village, the fortress was separated by a moat. Extensive remains of the castle, which was built in the eastern part of the rock, have been preserved, a large residential wing that served as a parsonage, and walls with two cross slits that surround a large room in which a tower ruin was recorded in the cadastre from 1811.
Lalande Castle
The castle in the hamlet of Lalande is associated with the Le Boulvé family and the dynasty known as the de Séguier or de la Siquarie. The Séguier du Boulvé are descendants of a family from Gascony , known in the 11th century as the de Lalande. The Moissac Abbey copy book shows mentions of this line since the middle of the 11th century. The Lalandes were present in the area around Bélaye and Moissac in the middle of the 11th century. The same place name is found near Valence in the Barguelonne valley . The most famous members of the family were Guillaume Séguier, co-landlord of Bélaye and in 1325 at the side of Cardinal Arnaud de Via in Avignon , and Pierre Séguier, Bishop of Elne and founder of a chapel in the new church in Bélaye after 1353. Each of the two people could play a role in the construction of the castle, with a hatch that allows it to be dated to the late 14th or early 15th century. Around 1340, Jeanne de la Siquayrie transferred the mansions of Le Boulvé and Lalande to her husband, Bernard d'Orgueil. In 1401, however, the heir Bernard d'Orgueil noted in a homage to the Bishop of Cahors that his property was still in the hands of the English. In the following years the castle came into the possession of the Montaigu family. A large part of the house was rebuilt in the 16th century.
The remains of the former estate are now scattered over several plots that form the core of the hamlet of Lalande. The affiliation of four buildings can be determined, others are hidden behind the plaster of modernized buildings. The medieval buildings occupied two adjacent parcels. About 15 meters south of the structure, which is now called "Lalande Castle", there was a massive rectangular structure that could once have been a donjon . Five meters behind it, the outbuildings of today's castle surround the traces of a hall and medieval walls that belonged to a second residential wing and a circular wall that probably connected it to the first residential building. A little southern an impressive, with a marked buttresses reinforced curtain wall an area of approximately 20 x 30 meters. It is flanked to the north by a habitable pavilion .
Today's castle is an elongated, rectangular building flanked by a round tower on its northeast corner and a second tower with a smaller diameter on its north side. It has a basement with a barrel vault and four windows on the north side. It could be assigned to the medieval construction stage. Access is via a wide straight staircase on the south side facing the courtyard. The upper floors are essentially the result of the new building from the 16th century. A cross-story window and chimneys in the Renaissance style from this period have been preserved. A vertical shooting hatch can be seen on the first floor of the northwest tower.
Floiras Castle
The Seigneurs of Floiras, a present-day hamlet at the extreme northeast corner of the municipality, have been mentioned in the records since the 13th century. You are listed as witnesses to an arbitration award between the Seigneurs of Bélaye and the Bishop of Cahors in 1236. In 1280 they pay homage to the bishop for the lands of Bélaye. At the end of the 13th century, the estate was married to the Commarque family. In 1301 Gaillarde de Floyras, widow of Bertrand de Commarque, paid homage for the fiefdom of Floyras. Shortly before 1391, Amalvin de Gironde inherited the goods of Arnaud de Commarque and Jean de Gironde, also Seigneur of Montcléra, paid homage to Floyras and her goods in Bélaye in 1461. However, it was Antoine Delbosc who declared in 1504 that he owned two uninhabitable houses in Floyras. The Floyras estate was probably abandoned after the Hundred Years War. But the Gironde family quickly repossessed it. in 1537 they owned the fortress house of Floyras. They owned the estate until the 18th century when they sold it to the Bercegol family in 1726.
It is not considered likely that there would have been a castle on Floyras before the beginning of the 16th century. The origins of the present-day property go back to its construction at that time, at the instigation of Antoine Delbosc, but probably by Jean de Gironde, owner of the permanent house in 1537. The oldest parts of the current building show characteristic features of small castles from the late 15th or early 16th century. The masonry of the former south-western facade and the north-western gable side are integrated in the current residential wing, but allow a main building to be reconstructed, which was narrower and shorter with a round tower in the east. Traces of separation and filling on the northeast facade suggest that there could have been a wing or a second corner tower along the side, which was subsequently torn down. This structure, erected before the mid-16th century, was mentioned in the Bélaye cadastre, which was created since 1602. The Seigneur of Montcléra declares the possession of a castle, a mill and a dovecote . A number of works that have resulted in its current appearance were carried out during the 17th century. This concerned the square round wall and the two corner towers, which are characteristic of every era. The wedding of François-Louis de Bercegol and Jeanne Ballande was celebrated in the palace chapel, which was probably set up in the southeast corner tower. The last major renovations were initiated by Jean-Guillaume-Pierre-Paul de Bercegol at the beginning of the 19th century. The year “1810” above the entrance to today's residential wing and the year “1811” on the wooden frame of a small door in the south-east wing attest to the construction activity. The results are today's facades with their segment-arched windows, the enlargement of the residential wing in a north-westerly direction and the redesign of the outbuildings. The castle wall that had enclosed the inner courtyard was torn down on the street side. In addition to furniture, a number of chimneys and walls painted in the classicist style remain from this construction phase . The staircase that leads to the upper floors of the residential wing is probably from the 19th century, but of a more recent date. Further renovation work was carried out at the end of the 19th century or the beginning of the 20th century, mainly affecting the longitudinal wing, which has served purely for agricultural purposes since then.
The castle is in a dilapidated condition. Claire and Philippe Buttazzoni, who bought the castle, are in the process of renovating it.
Cousserans Castle
The place "Cosseran" was mentioned in a document from 1284, but without specifying a noble residence. The historian Jean Lartigaut believes it is possible that the Grézels family, knights of Bélaye, built a permanent house there in the late 13th century. Around 1389 it went through a marriage to Raymond-Arnaud del Castanié, Seigneur von Hautcastel. After the Hundred Years War, a canon from Cahors from the Delbosc family bought, among other things, a "ruined tower, called Cousserans" with a few outbuildings. Seven years later he built the castle. In any case, it was completed in 1504 because Antoine Delbosc, Seigneur von Cousserans, lived in it. The windows and doors adorned with rod ornamentation, the ribs of the ribbed vault and the rose petals that adorn certain fighters are in the style of a building from the period in question. Over the centuries the fief came into the hands of the Del Sorbié, Durfort, Dumas de Paysac, Gard families and, in the 19th century, the Fontenilles and Roussy families. The latter carried out extensive restoration and furnishing work in 1878. From these emerged the balcony on the first floor and the crenellated terraces above the horse stables.
The massive, five-story building with its continuous crowning with machicolations presents the main building like a keep of a castle. Its rounded corners are a special feature. The main building is flanked in the north by a stair tower and in the south by a short, three-story wing. Terraces in the north and south allow entry to the castle. The large halls on the two floors of the main building are covered with a beamed ceiling à la française , that is, with ceiling beams that are as wide as the spaces in between. The ribbed vaulted hall in the south wing could once have been a chapel. The facades and roofs have been inscribed as Monument historique since May 16, 1974 .
Castle Albenquats
The castle was probably built at the end of the 18th century. The marriage of Jeanne-Marie de Lalbenque, the last descendant of her family, to Antoine de Testas de Folmont passed it into the hands of his family. The family was at the last assembly of the Estates General of the Quercy in 1789. Antoine de Testas de Folmont was a colonel during the Vendée uprising on the side of the royalists and was executed in Vannes by republican soldiers after the lost battle of Quiberon . Jeanne-Marie de Folmont stayed at Albenquats Castle during the Revolution while her other castles were destroyed or burned down. The descendants still own the property today. The massive, three-story building consists of two staggered residential wings, which are connected by a square dovecote. Numerous remains of outbuildings, which are more or less dilapidated, surround the property.
Bellegarde Palace
The castle is located on a hill between the valleys of the Ruisseau de Combe-Rantès and Ruisseau de Rivel rivers and, thanks to its strategic location, served as a sentry during the Hundred Years War, when the bishops of Cahors were the seigneurs of the place. In the 14th century the Guiscard family, Seigneurs von Grézels, owned the property. In 1594 it came into the hands of Antoine Coture, whose descendants sold it to the Foissac family in 1710. François Foissac became secretary to François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis , who was appointed first foreign minister and later cardinal. During the revolution, his daughter Henriette was imprisoned in Cahors. In 1796 she was released and married André Guilhou, whose family owned the castle from then on. The current building with its cut round tower dates from the 16th century. The cross-frame windows are reproduced. The castle is privately owned and can only be viewed from the outside.
Economy and Infrastructure
Blue cheese Bleu des Causses
AOC Cahors grapevine
Rocamadour cheese
Bélaye is in the AOC zones
- the blue cheese Bleu des Causses ,
- of the Cahors wine,
- des Rocamadour , a cheese made from goat's milk ,
- the Noix du Périgord , the walnuts of the Périgord and
- of the Périgord nut oil.
total = 32
traffic
Bélaye can be reached via routes départementales 8, 28, 45, 50 and 67.
Web links
- Information about the blue cheese Bleu des Causses (French)
- Information about the Cahors wine (French)
- Information about the Rocamadour cheese (French)
- Information on Périgord walnuts and Périgord nut oil (French)
- Information about the Rocamadour cheese (French)
Individual evidence
- ^ Jean-Marie Cassagne: Villes et Villages en pays lotois ( fr ) Tertium éditions. S. 27. 2013. Accessed May 30, 2019.
- ↑ Lot ( fr ) habitants.fr. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
- ↑ Ma commune: Bélaye ( fr ) Système d'Information sur l'Eau du Bassin Adour Garonne. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
- ↑ L'histoire de Bélaye ( fr ) Municipality of Bélaye. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
- ↑ Anglars (actuellement commune d'Anglars-Juillac) ( fr ) In: Archives départementales . Lot department. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
- ↑ Notice Communale Bélaye ( fr ) EHESS . Retrieved May 30, 2019.
- ↑ Populations légales 2016 Commune de Bélaye (46022) ( fr ) INSEE . Retrieved May 30, 2019.
- ↑ Gilles Séraphin, Maurice SCELLES: église paroissiale Saint-Aignan ( fr ) Départemental Lot. October 3, 2013. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
- ^ Eglise Saint-Aignan dite Eglise Grande ( fr ) French Ministry of Culture . October 13, 2015. Accessed May 30, 2019.
- ↑ Gilles Séraphin, Maurice SCELLES: église paroissiale Notre-Dame de l'Assomption ( fr ) Départemental Lot. October 3, 2013. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
- ↑ Gilles Séraphin, Maurice Scellés: glise paroissiale Sainte-Catherine ( fr ) Départemental Lot. October 3, 2013. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
- ^ Ancien presbytère ( fr ) French Ministry of Culture . October 13, 2015. Accessed May 30, 2019.
- ↑ Gilles Séraphin, Maurice SCELLES: château: castrum ( fr ) Départemental Lot. January 2, 2015. Accessed May 30, 2019.
- ↑ Gilles Séraphin, Maurice SCELLES: château ( fr ) Départemental Lot. January 2, 2015. Accessed May 30, 2019.
- ^ Elodie Cassan: château ( fr ) Départementrat Lot. January 2, 2015. Accessed May 30, 2019.
- ↑ La renaissance du château de Floiras ( fr ) La Dépêche du Midi . September 18, 2014. Accessed May 30, 2019.
- ↑ Gilles Séraphin, Maurice SCELLES: château ( fr ) Départemental Lot. January 2, 2015. Accessed May 30, 2019.
- ↑ Château de Cousserand ( fr ) French Ministry of Culture . October 13, 2015. Accessed May 30, 2019.
- ↑ Château d'Albenquats ( fr ) chateau-fort-manoir-chateau.eu. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
- ↑ Château de Bellegarde ( fr ) chateau-fort-manoir-chateau.eu. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
- ↑ Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité: Rechercher un produit ( fr ) Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité . Retrieved May 30, 2019.
- ↑ Caractéristiques des établissements en 2015 Commune de Bélaye (46022) ( fr ) INSEE . Retrieved May 30, 2019.