Bruniquel

Bruniquel
region	Occitania
Department	Tarn-et-Garonne
Arrondissement	Montauban
Canton	Tarn-Tescou-Quercy vert
Community association	Quercy Vert-Aveyron
Coordinates	44 ° 3 ′  N , 1 ° 40 ′  E Coordinates: 44 ° 3 ′  N , 1 ° 40 ′  E
height	90-382 m
surface	33.20 km 2
Residents	608 (January 1, 2017)
Population density	18 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code	82800
INSEE code	82026
Website	http://bruniquel.org/
Main street of Bruniquel

Bruniquel is a southern French municipality with 608 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Occitania region (previously Midi-Pyrénées ). Bruniquel is classified as one of the Plus beaux villages de France (“ Most beautiful villages in France ”).

location

Bruniquel lies on a hill above the left bank of the Aveyron , at the confluence of its tributary Vère . The city of Montauban is about 28 kilometers to the west; the wine village of Gaillac about 35 kilometers southeast. The places Puycelsi and Castelnau-de-Montmiral, which are also among the “Most Beautiful Villages in France”, are located twelve and 23 kilometers to the southeast.

Population development

year	1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2006	2015
Residents	449	515	478	446	469	561	587	611

In the 19th century the place consistently had between 1500 and 1850 inhabitants. The phylloxera crisis in viticulture and the mechanization of agriculture resulted in job losses and, as a result, a steady decline in the population.

economy

Today the community lives primarily from agriculture and forestry as well as from handicrafts and small businesses. Since the 1960s, tourism has also played a role in the form of vacation rental.

history

The stone circles in the Bruniquel Cave are traces of human use from 176,000 years ago.

Bruniquel is a medieval village in the Quercy , whose castles (older and younger) overlook the Aveyron. At the foot of the castles there are prehistoric rock roofs ( abris ), a little further away numerous other archaeological sites. In the Middle Ages, the place experienced a great boom due to its location on the Way of St. James .

Attractions

Château de Bruniquel

• The townscape of Bruniquel is particularly worth seeing: the majority of the houses date from the 14th to the 16th century; Most consist of uncut natural stones ( quarry stones ), but some also consist of plastered or brick- filled half - timbering . Some of the winding streets still have their old paving .
• According to tradition, the older castle is said to have been founded in the 6th century by the Merovingian Queen Brunichild . The Château vieux still has its donjon from the 12th century (at that time the place belonged to the county of Toulouse ) and living quarters from the 13th century. There is also a Renaissance gallery, and other parts were redesigned in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Château jeune with its Renaissance gallery with six arcades overlooks the Aveyron valley by more than 80 meters. It dates from between 1485 and 1510 and was rebuilt in the baroque era . The ensemble has been recognized as a monument historique since 1840 .

Others

The castles of Bruniquel served as the backdrop for the award-winning film The Old Rifle by Robert Enrico with Romy Schneider and Philippe Noiret in 1975 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bruniquel on Les plus Beaux Villages de France (French)
2. ↑ Was that architecture what the Neanderthals made of the stalactites? in FAZ from June 1, 2016, page N2
3. ↑ Châteaux, Bruniquel in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)