Beaugency

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Beaugency
Beaugency Coat of Arms
Beaugency (France)
Beaugency
region Center-Val de Loire
Department Loiret
Arrondissement Orleans
Canton Beaugency (main town)
Community association Terres du Val de Loire
Coordinates 47 ° 47 '  N , 1 ° 38'  E Coordinates: 47 ° 47 '  N , 1 ° 38'  E
height 78-118 m
surface 16.45 km 2
Residents 7,298 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 444 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 45190
INSEE code
Website http://www.beaugency.fr/

Beaugency - aerial view

Template: Infobox municipality in France / maintenance / different coat of arms in Wikidata

Beaugency is a commune in France with 7298 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in the department of Loiret in the region Center-Val de Loire .

location

Beaugency is on the northern side of the Loire , which is spanned by a medieval bridge here . The community is about halfway between Orléans (29 kilometers northeast) and Blois (33 kilometers southwest) and 156 kilometers southwest of Paris .

history

Bridge over the Loire

The oldest surviving mention of Beaugency is found in a 12th century document as a fortified property ( châtellenie ) of the Counts of Blois . In 1292 it came to the French crown. In the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) Beaugency played an important strategic role: The city was occupied four times by the English, but was finally liberated by French troops under the leadership of Joan of Arc in the Battle of Beaugency (1429) . Then the manorial rule ( seigneurerie ) was transferred to the Duchy of Orléans via Beaugency . In the Huguenot Wars (1562–1598) the city was set on fire by the Protestants in 1567 and badly damaged. The triple city wall, the castle and the Notre-Dame church were particularly affected.

The Beaugency Bridge was already fiercely contested in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71. During the Second World War, the German Air Force bombed the city twice (1940 and 1944). On September 16, 1944, the German General Botho Henning Elster with 18,850 soldiers and 754 officers on the Loire Bridge formally surrendered to US General Robert C. Macon of the 83rd Infantry Division .

Population development

year 1968 1975 1982 1990 1999 2009
Residents 5,530 6,534 7.190 6,917 7.112 7,738

Source: INSEE

economy

Due to the freight traffic on the Loire, Beaugency was an important trading town until the railway was built in 1846. Today it plays a role as the market and administrative center of its agricultural hinterland. Tourism has also become an important source of income.

Attractions

A large number of structures in Beaugency are classified as Monuments historiques , including several townhouses ( hôtels ); other monuments are on a separate list. Most of Beaugency's attractions are on and near Place de Saint-Firmin . It is named after a church from the 16th century, of which only the tower that dominates the square remained after the French Revolution . In the middle of the square, a statue of Joan of Arc commemorates the liberation of the city in 1429.

  • The tower of the Saint-Firmin church that houses a carillon . It has been a monument historique since 1913 . registered.
  • Immediately next to it is the city's hospice, built in the 12th century and rebuilt in the 16th century, which was equally important for pilgrims and city dwellers; it has been a monument historique since 1923
  • At its side is the market hall from the late 19th century, which has been recognized as a monument since 2010.
Donjon near the Notre-Dame church
  • The donjon , which is around 36 meters high, dates from the 11th century . The rectangular fortress structure, structured by pilasters, was originally - for better defense - surrounded by an earth embankment up to a height of six meters and protected by a double circular wall. The defense and residential tower, also known as the Tour de César , was raised by two floors in the 13th or 14th century. The tower was still inhabited in the 16th century and received a large number of windows in the Renaissance style (rectangular windows with crossed windows ); a little later (1567) it was set on fire by the Protestants. In 1840 the ceilings and vaults inside the tower collapsed; in the same year it was classified as a monument historique . It is one of the few largely preserved specimens of its kind in France; the others are in Loches , Pons and Niort .
Notre-Dame church
Notre-Dame church - interior
Abbey (left) and Notre-Dame Church (right)
  • The three-aisled church of Notre-Dame, built in the 12th century, was formerly part of an Augustinian abbey. In March 1152 the marriage between Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine was declared null and void at a council ; The latter then married Heinrich Plantagenet in May of the same year, later King Henry II of England . The abbey was dissolved during the French Revolution; since then the abbey church has been the parish church of the city. The west facade is largely unadorned; the tympanum-free portals are more in keeping with building traditions in the south-west of France. The building was revised in the 16th century: all components were given Gothic rib vaults that rest on pillar-like wall templates. The effect of the basilica, five-bay nave is determined by mighty low columns with relatively flat capitals ; a non-protruding transept and a two-bay semicircular closed ambulatory choir with three chapels adjoin. The church building is classified as a monument historique . The Sainte-Anne chapel on the north side was added in the years 1874–1876. The core of the adjoining abbey building dates back to the Middle Ages, but today it is a renovation from the 18th century. Today a hotel and a school are housed here.
  • The Dunois Castle , consisting of a building with two floors and a hexagonal stair tower (15th / 16th century), is an extension of the medieval donjon; the three-storey wing now serves as a local museum ( Musée de l'Orléanais ). The building was classified as a monument historique in 1925 .
  • The Tour du Diable was part of the former city fortifications ( remparts ). In the middle of the 15th century it was modernized by Count Jean de Dunois (rectangular windows).
  • The so-called Maison des Templiers is the oldest civil building in the city and dates in part from the 12th century. The facade has been registered as a monument historique since 1919 .
  • The half - timbered house called Maison Mediéval is a construction from the 15th / 16th centuries. Century.
  • The town hall ( hôtel de ville ) is a beautiful Renaissance building with facade reliefs from the 16th century; underneath there is also a salamander - the heraldic animal Franz I. The town hall was already classified as a monument historique in 1840 .
  • The clock tower ( Tour d'Horloge ), which dates back to the 11th century, is now in the center of Beaugency, but was formerly part of the medieval city fortifications. In 1511 a clock was installed that gave it its name; Roof structures and today's clock date from the 18th and 19th centuries. The tower has been recognized as a monument historique since 1922 .
  • The single-nave Romanesque church of Saint-Etienne dates from the 11th century and is therefore one of the oldest church buildings in the Loire Valley. Its walls - with the exception of the corner stones - are made of roughly hewn stones and both the west facade and the apse are completely unadorned outside and inside. The former church building is currently used for art exhibitions and has been recognized as a monument historique since 1840 .
  • The facade of the former city prison ( ancienne prison ) from the 14th / 15th centuries. Century has also been classified as a Monument historique since 1933 .
  • The 7.70 to 12.80 meter wide bridge over the Loire has a total of 23 arches and is over 400 meters long - making it one of the longest medieval bridges in France. Its oldest parts (19 round and pointed arches on the north side) originally date from the 12th century. The Saint-Jacques chapel used to stand on the third pillar to protect the bridge structure and to receive and say goodbye to the pilgrims . After a devastating flood in 1505, which washed away the settlement formerly located at the south end of the bridge on an island, along with a drawbridge ( pont-levis ) and also changed the course of the river, the south side had to be lengthened repeatedly in the 16th and 17th centuries. The pillar heads upstream are sharpened for better drainage of floating debris. The bridge is a listed building.

Town twinning

There is a town partnership ( Jumelage ) with Hiltrup , a district of Münster since 1975 .

Born in Beaugency

Individual evidence

  1. dossier complet: Commune de Beaugency (45028) ( French ) Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques . Retrieved January 23, 2019.
  2. Tour Saint-Firmin, Beaugency in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  3. ^ Ancien Hospice, Beaugency in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  4. ^ Donjon, Beaugency in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  5. Église Notre-Dame, Beaugency in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  6. Château de Dunois, Beaugency in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  7. Maison des Templiers, Beaugency in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  8. Hôtel-de-Ville, Beaugency in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  9. Tour d'Horloge, Beaugency in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  10. Église Saint-Étienne, Beaugency in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  11. ^ Ancienne prison, Beaugency in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  12. Pont de la Loire, Beaugency in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)

literature

Web links

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