Boulbon

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

Boulbon
region	Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur
Department	Bouches-du-Rhône
Arrondissement	Arles
Canton	Châteaurenard
Community association	Arles-Crau-Camargue-Montagnette
Coordinates	43 ° 52 '  N , 4 ° 42'  E Coordinates: 43 ° 52 '  N , 4 ° 42'  E
height	10-165 m
surface	19.33 km 2
Residents	1,506 (January 1, 2017)
Population density	78 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code	13150
INSEE code	13017
Website	www.mairie-boulbon.fr
Castle ruins and mill in Boulbon

Boulbon is a French commune with 1,495 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2016) in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region . It belongs to the Arrondissement of Arles , the canton of Châteaurenard and the Communauté d'agglomération Arles-Crau-Camargue-Montagnette .

geography

High water marks in Boulbon, Market Square

The community is located 15 kilometers south of Avignon and eight kilometers north of Tarascon . The D 35 connects the place with Avignon and Tarascon. Boulbon is located at the western foot of the Montagnette range of hills . The neighboring municipalities of Boulbon are Aramon in the north, beyond the Rhône, in the Gard department , Barbentane in the northeast, Tarascon in the south and Saint-Pierre-de-Mézoargues in the west.

The town center with Place Gilles Leontin is 13 m above sea level and 2 km from the banks of the Rhône. In the course of history, the place was hit several times by devastating floods, most recently in December 2003 when the market square was flooded about 60 cm high. The highest flood documented on a house wall was in 1856 when the high water mark was over 2 m above the sidewalk. After 2003, the construction of flood protection dams was intensified, so that no flood has reached the place since then.

history

The oldest human traces found (worked flint stones and shards) date from the 2nd millennium BC. In the hamlet of Pas-de-Bouquet on the municipal boundary of Boulbon and Tarascon there is a Gallo-Roman site. It was destroyed in the 5th century.

The village of Boulbon was first mentioned in 1003. It is possible that the monks of Montmajour Abbey began to drain and develop the marshy plain, with numerous settlements being established. The name of the place Boulbon comes from this time , which means "swamp drainage" in the region. Other names were: Bourbon , Latin castrum de bulbono or de burbono or bolbo , Provenance. Bourboun . In the Middle Ages the village was a diocese of Avignon and under the control of the Counts of Tarascon . Boulbon had the title of Viscount and became a county with the help of the Oraison family, one of the oldest families in Provence, as evidenced by a 1608 letter. This was recorded on January 10, 1609, and a few years later Boulbon was transferred to the Raousset family.

In the Middle Ages the village was dominated by its fortified castle. Some segments of the former fortification wall that surrounded the city have survived to this day.

politics

The right-wing extremist Front National in Boulbon has always achieved good results in the presidential elections . In 2007, her candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen received 20.6% of the vote in Boulbon, making it the second strongest candidate behind election winner Nicolas Sarkozy , who got 40.0%. The socialist Ségolène Royal received only 13.3% of the vote. In 2002, Le Pen even got the most votes in town with 29.4%. Jacques Chirac received only 13.7 % of the vote at the time, while socialist Lionel Jospin only received 7.6% of the vote.

Population development

year	1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2008	2017
Residents	867	935	836	1042	1329	1510	1538	1495

regional customs

• Every year on June 1st at 7 pm in Boulbon la Procession des bouteilles , the "bottle procession" takes place, in which only men take part. Everyone is "armed" with a bottle of wine and moves in the procession behind the church flag and a figure of St. Marcellin to the chapel of Saint-Marcellin. A solemn mass is celebrated there and the priest blesses the bottles, after which everyone has a glass or sip of wine. The custom is said to go back to the monks of Montmajour .
• Every 4th Sunday of August there is another festival: the Saint-Eloi , a festive procession in honor of St. Eligius , where festively decorated carts with numerous equally decorated horses are pulled through the town, accompanied by folkloric groups and women in traditional Provencal costume.
• At the end of September, the festival of the bull (fight) club, la fête du club taurin , is celebrated in Boulbon . At this festival there is a procession to which many Boulbonners in historical clothing follow the bulls accompanied by "bull herders" on carriages.

Attractions

• Castle ruins, but currently cannot be entered for security reasons.
• The Grand rue : It has been the longest and most important street in the town for centuries.
  • The old city gate Porte Loriol ( Lage ) on Place Victor Barbarin (named after the chairman of the General Council of the canton of Tarascon from 1961 to 1973) is one of the city gates in the earlier city wall and dates from 1253. It stands at the north end of the Grand rue .
  • There, on the north side of the street, is La Gardette , the house of the former guards who guarded the gates, especially during epidemics.
  • At the corner of the Grand rue and the Rue du Four Banal is the former bakery of the gentlemen of the village, in which the residents of the village were allowed to bake their bread for a fee.
  • Across the street was the former justice building ( L'auditorium ), La Maison Basse . La Maison Haute was the castle itself. There was also an oil mill and a garden here, both of which had to give way to the new building of Rue Neuve , which connected the Rue de l'Église at the end of the 20th century .
  • A few meters further on you will find a statue of St. Christopher from the 14th century on the left . The Rue Saint-Christophe begins opposite it , until 1810 with the second entrance to the old town, the Porte Saint-Jaume . It is quite possible that the statue also served as a kind of milestone for the pilgrims of St. James who were on their way from Italy to Arles to the Via Tolosana .
  • In the Rue Saint-Christophe and the hospital was in the u. a. these pilgrims were hosted.
  • The Grand rue joins the Place du Puit Neuf ("Square of the new fountain") in the south , from which the Rue du Portalet branches off, where a small open city gate ( portalet = " little gate ") stood in the 17th century .
• Church of Sainte-Anne ( location ): The former parish church, only about 60 m from the Porte Loriol , was built between 1626 and 1628 on the site of the Romanesque chapel Saint-Sébastien. At that time it was the second parish church after the Église Saint-Marcellin and before the Église Saint-Joseph and has not been used since 1875. The current church tower dates from 1679. By resolution of May 14, 1980, the church was classified as a monument historique . In 2009 it became the Center Culturel Sainte-Anne . The archway of the main entrance is decorated with grapes of fruit and angel heads. In 1982, during restoration work, a large batch of porcelain was discovered which consisted of 200 very different parts and can be viewed in the town hall today. All parts date from the beginning of the 17th century. The reason why this collection was created is unknown.
• Saint-Marcellin Chapel ( Lage ), 11th century, by the cemetery. The chapel is considered one of the most interesting Romanesque chapels in Provence. It was the parish church of the place until 1628, when it was replaced as such by the Église Sainte-Anne that year.
• Saint-Julien chapel ( location ), 12th century
• Le moulin Bonnet , the Boulbon windmill, was the first of its kind in the department and still works today. She is one of the "twins of the Montagnette " ( les jumeaux de la Montagnette ). The other is the "Berlandier Mill" ( location ). Although the year 1748 is engraved on the rotating millstone - possibly a reuse of the millstone from another mill - the mill was only built in 1776 by Jean Braye and restored by Antoine Bonnet . Only the tower of the "Berlandier Mill", which stood a little below, is preserved today. There is a metal cross on a stone pillar near the Bonnet mill. It was built in 1566 and restored in 2002. An information board, unique in the Montagnette, was put up by the pupils of the primary school in Bourbon.
• Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Frigolet near the village (in the municipality of Tarascon )
• L'oratoire de Saint-Éloi ("Oratory of St. Eligius") ( location ): The small oratory was built in 2008 at the beginning of the parcours of the procession la Saint-Éloi for the 30th anniversary of the festival society.
• On the border of the municipal areas of Boulbon and Barbentane stands the Croix de Saint-Julien , a large cross from the 14th century.
• Other Romanesque chapels are in need of restoration
  • Chapelle Saint-Andiol
  • Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-la-Valette
  • Chapelle Saint-Christophe

• 

  Porte Loriol from Place Victor Barberin. La Gardette is behind the gate on the left

• 

  Église Sainte-Anne

• 

  Main church of St. Joseph on Rue de l'Église

• 

  Interior of St. Joseph's Church

• 

  Christopher statue in the Grand rue

• 

  Place Gilles Leontin with the Café du Commerce

Personalities

• Jacques Bondon (born December 6, 1927 in Boulbon, † April 2, 2008 in Coulommiers ), composer
• Guillaume Poitevin (born October 2, 1646 in Boulbon, † January 26, 1706 in Aix-en-Provence ), serpent wind player, conductor and composer.

Web links

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

Wikivoyage: Boulbon  - Travel Guide

• Boulbon on the Provence website
• Community website
• Population statistics from 1793

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Louis J S. de Bresc: Armorial des communes de Provence, ou Dictionnaire géographique et héraldique [& c.] , Bachelin-Deflorenne, 1866, p. 42
2. ↑ Brief presentation on alpilles.com
3. ↑ Information brochure of the commune of Boulbon
4. ^ Information leaflet from the municipality and the Amis du Vieux Boulbon