Blars

Blars
region	Occitania
Department	Lot
Arrondissement	Gourdon
Canton	Causse et Vallées
Community association	Communes du Causse de Labastide Murat
Coordinates	44 ° 34 ′ N , 1 ° 43 ′ E Coordinates: 44 ° 34 ′ N , 1 ° 43 ′ E
height	200-380 m
surface	25.68 km 2
Residents	138 (January 1, 2017)
Population density	5 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code	46330
INSEE code	46031
Website	www.blars.fr
	; Parish Church of Saint-Laurent

Blars is a French commune with 138 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Lot department in the Occitanie region (before 2016: Midi-Pyrénées ). The municipality belongs to the Arrondissement Gourdon (until 2016: Arrondissement Cahors ) and the Canton of Causse et Vallées (until 2015: Canton Lauzès ).

The origin of the name of the community is a property of the German Belard. In medieval writings, the place is mentioned as Blaserio , Blarcio , Blars or Albars . The last form leads to the alternative theory that Blars has its origin in an estate belonging to Albarus.

The inhabitants are called Blarsiens and Blarsiennes .

geography

Blars is located about 35 kilometers southeast of Gourdon and about 25 kilometers northeast of Cahors in the historic province of Quercy in the Causses du Quercy Regional Nature Park .

Blars is surrounded by the six neighboring communities:

	Quissac	Espédaillac
Sénaillac-Lauzès		Marcilhac-sur-Celé
Orniac	Sauliac-sur-Célé

Although the water emerges from the earth in several places, no running water crosses the area of the municipality.

history

The Church of Blars was owned by the Abbey of Benedictine in Marcilhac-sur-Cele been when before the end of the 11th century Barasc de Thémines, the landlord of Blars, they appropriated illegally. Before Barasc died in the Holy Land , he wrote a letter to the Bishop of Cahors to oblige his parents to return the Church. Against a certain payment by the abbot , a priory was set up in Blars . This was mentioned in 1193 and again only in 1547 when the priory was handed over to Jean d'Hébrard. Edmond Albe suspects that the priory buildings disappeared during the Hundred Years War .

Population development

After records began, the population rose to a peak of around 610 by the middle of the 19th century. In the following period, the size of the community fell to around 115 inhabitants with short recovery phases until the turn of the millennium, before a phase of moderate growth set in, the continues today.

year	1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2006	2011	2017
Residents	148	144	134	131	138	117	126	127	138

From 1962 official figures excluding residents with a second residence
Sources: EHESS / Cassini until 1999, INSEE from 2006

Attractions

Parish Church of Saint-Laurent

The sculptural decorations on the entrance portal of the southern arm of the transept allow the construction of the apse and transept to be dated to the middle of the 12th century. The nave was destroyed in a fire in the 19th century and was rebuilt in 1886 and 1887 in neo-Romanesque style.

The church is built of beautiful masonry with ashlar . The apse and the two apsidioles are equipped with boiler vaults and barrel vaults , the two arms of the transept with barrel vaults and the crossing with an octagonal dome on four pendentives . Only the arches of the crossing show a pointed vault line. In the right part of the choir , two doors with frames in the form of thick bulges lead to gaps between the apse and apsidioles. A spiral staircase in the corner between the nave and the southern arm of the transept allows the ascent to the modern bell tower . A second, straight staircase is not accessible today. It was built into the wall of the north arm of the transept.

Two of the consoles of the southern absidiole carry a man and woman close together and a monstrous creature perched on a man's shoulders. Unworked heads appear on some consoles of the transept arms. The capitals inside the church are mainly decorated with stylized leaves in which human heads are mixed. A mediocre capital depicts a figure crouching between two lions whose forelegs stand on a human head. The workmanship of the two capitals at the entrance to the southern apseid is of better quality. One shows two lions facing each other, the other the figure of the curmudgeon tormented by demons. The archivolt of the entrance portal is decorated with plant tendrils and the bulge of the arch is twisted. The leaves of the two Corinthian capitals are designed as palmettes with leaves at their ends. Two atlases carry the abacuses . Simson 's episodes could be read out in the reliefs . They show a man who is fighting with lions and is surrounded by ropes. In the windows of the southern absidiole there are traces of paintings, especially red foliage on a white background.