Cère (Landes)

Cère
region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department	Country
Arrondissement	Mont-de-Marsan
Canton	Haute Lande Armagnac
Community association	Cœur Haute Lande
Coordinates	44 ° 0 ′ N , 0 ° 32 ′ W Coordinates: 44 ° 0 ′ N , 0 ° 32 ′ W
height	42-99 m
surface	39.87 km 2
Residents	411 (January 1, 2017)
Population density	10 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code	40090
INSEE code	40081
	; Parish Church of Saint Martin

Cère is a French municipality with 411 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in the department of land in the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine (before 2016: Aquitaine ). The municipality belongs to the arrondissement of Mont-de-Marsan and the canton of Haute Lande Armagnac (until 2015: canton of Labrit ).

The name in the Gascognischen language is also Cère . It could be derived from the Latin word cella , which means "a hermitage " or "a monastery ". In fact, a priory was established here in the 5th or 6th century after Christianization had taken hold in the region. The name could also come from the wax ( French cire ) that was collected from numerous beehives that were there in earlier times.

The inhabitants are called Cèrois and Cèroises .

geography

Cère is about 12 km north of Mont-de-Marsan in the historic province of Gascony .

3,650 hectares or 95% of the municipal area is forested, of which 930 hectares are owned by the municipality.

Cère is surrounded by the neighboring communities:

Garein	Brocas
Geloux		Canenx-et-Réaut
Saint-Martin-d'Oney	Uchacq-et-Parentis	Saint-Avit

Cère lies in the catchment area of the Adour River .

The Estrigon , a tributary of the Midouze , crosses the territory of the municipality, as does its tributaries,

the Ruisseau de Tourtilla,
the Ruisseau de l'Huillère, which rises in Cère,
the Ruisseau de Pouyfallas, which rises in Cère,
the Ruisseau de Pébarthe, which rises in Cère, and
the Ruisseau de Lamolle.

history

Jean-Marie de Poyferré de Cère, 1820

In 841 the Normans drove up the Adour, plundered and devastated the village of Cère, settled here and spread horror across Aquitaine . The Duke of Gascony was finally able to defeat and drive them out in 982. The Poor Clares of Mont-de-Marsan had ruled Cère since the Middle Ages . Protestant troops ravaged and looted the church during the Huguenot Wars in 1569 . These conflicts particularly affected the Landes because they are in the neighborhood of the Béarn , whose religion was officially Protestantism as opposed to the rest of France, which had remained Catholic . In the 18th century, the Poyferré family from Mont-de-Marsan obtained the manor. In the 19th century sheep farming was the main occupation of the residents. The landlord Jean-Marie de Poyferré de Cère founded a model sheep farm on his property. Napoleon Bonaparte appointed him in 1806 as head of the introduction of merino sheep into the Landes, then as chief inspector of the imperial sheep farms. The rearing of 1,200 merino sheep from Spain turned out to be a failure. Under the reign of the French Emperor Napoleon III. were pine trees planted. The main source of income shifted from sheep breeding to forestry, which gave the community a new boost. A metalworking company that started in 1874 quickly came to a standstill.

Cère owned a station on the railway line that connected Mont-de-Marsan to Luxey and opened in 1906. In 1955 the transport of people was stopped, in 1959 the freight transport.

Population development

After records began, the population rose to around 600 by the middle of the 19th century. In the following period, the size of the community fell to 225 inhabitants with brief recovery phases until the 1970s, before a growth phase began that has recently declined slightly showed.

year	1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2006	2010	2017
Residents	249	254	225	258	279	274	383	407	411

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

Attractions

Parish Church of Saint Martin

The original church was looted and damaged by Protestant troops in 1569. It was replaced by a new building in neo-Gothic style in 1866 according to plans by the architect of the department, Alexandre Ozanne, with financial support from the Poyferré de Cère family. The church, consecrated to Martin von Tours , has a nave with three naves with a length of five bays , which is extended with a three-walled apse . This is flanked by two sacristies . The side aisles are separated from the main nave by pointed arch arcades that rest on square pillars. On the western side a bell tower rises from the facade, which is equipped with an octagonal helmet . At the base of the helmet, at each corner of the tower, there are ridge turrets with aedicules on the tower in between. At the foot of the bell tower is the entrance portal in the form of a pressed pointed arch, above a twin window in round arches. Above it, in turn, a tower clock shows passers-by the time. Sloping buttresses surround the structure. Its roofs are covered with slate and its windows are ogive. Inside, a gallery opens up on the first floor to the nave. The naves are covered with a false ribbed vault.

Ananias gives Paul the sight of Pietro da Cortona

The equipment of the church was almost completely renewed in the new building in 1866. Only two oil paintings are from the earlier church. One is from the 18th century and shows the blind Paul who is miraculously healed by Ananias of Damascus . It is an interpretation by an unknown artist of the original by Pietro da Cortona from 1631. The painting of this church was restored in 1988. The other painting dates from the first half of the 19th century, was kept in the sacristy in 1988 and has been lost since then. A set of three leaded glass windows was created by an unknown artist at the same time as the new church was built. The window in the longitudinal axis shows a representation of the good shepherd . It also bears the coat of arms of the Poyferré de Cère family. The donors are likely to have been Simon Charles de Poyferré and his brother Jean, and the choice of motif could be related to the activities of their father, who was the chief inspector of the imperial sheep farms in Rambouillet and who founded a famous model sheep farm in Cère. The other two windows show the patron saint of the church, St. Martin, and Mary with baby Jesus . Mary wears an open crown and holds a lily, the baby Jesus wears a closed crown and carries a dove. The described and many other items of equipment of the church are registered as national cultural assets.

Castle of Cère

When the Poyferré family gained the manorial power in the 18th century, they built the castle in Cère in the high-classic style . It consists of a three-story residential wing with an adjoining square pavilion . When Jean-Marie de Poyferré de Cère inherited it, he had his model sheep farm built on the property and set up a breeding facility for merino sheep from Spain. At the location of the former sheep farm building, a memorial column today commemorates that time.