Château-Larcher
| Château-Larcher | ||
|---|---|---|
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| region | Nouvelle-Aquitaine | |
| Department | Vienne | |
| Arrondissement | Poitiers | |
| Canton | Vivonne | |
| Community association | Vallées du Clain | |
| Coordinates | 46 ° 25 ′ N , 0 ° 19 ′ E | |
| height | 85-135 m | |
| surface | 15.35 km 2 | |
| Residents | 1,025 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 67 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 86370 | |
| INSEE code | 86065 | |
| Website | http://www.chateau-larcher.fr/ | |
Château-Larcher is a commune with 1,025 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine in the department of Vienne and is located about 16 km south of Poitiers . The place is completely surrounded by the arms of the Clouère . It is known for its medieval fortress ruins with a former castle, a Romanesque church and an important death lantern in the cemetery. Less known is its location on the edge of the battlefield of the Battle of Voulon 507.
history
Roots going back a long way
The settlement of the Château-Larcher area is very old. A remarkable dolmen from the time of the megalithic culture (4,500 to 2,000 BC) stands in the middle of a Celtic necropolis of at least a thousand graves on the plateau of Thorus (adjacent district of the municipality) .
Château-Larcher is not far from the old Roman road via Pictavia , which led from Poitiers to Civray . It is therefore not surprising that a Gallo-Roman altar was discovered in Baptresse, a neighboring town of the municipality of Château-Larcher , with a sculpture of one of the gods of the Roman pantheon on each of its four sides. This altar dates back to the 2nd century AD and is now in the St. Croix Museum in Poitiers.
Château-Larcher was possibly after Voulon also one of the scenes of the famous battle of 507 between the Franks under Clovis (Clovis). and the Visigoths (also called Wisigoten) under Alaric II , in which the Visigoths were defeated.
The place name and its predecessors
The village is now called "Château-Larcher". In Latin it was once called "Castrum Achardi" , which means: "Castle of Achard". That was the name of the person who rebuilt it at the end of the 10th century. At that time it was also called Châtel-Achard or Chasteau-Achard . The first changes to his name appeared in the 11th century. One began to formulate: “Chastel-Acherd” , “Chastel- Acher” , “Chastellacher” , and then “Chastellachair” or “Chastel Archier” . Up to eighteen variants are known, which are documented by documents from the Middle Ages .
For the first time in 1627, today's name "Château-Larcher" appears in a printed work , but it has little relation to the original meaning.
But what was the name of the place before Achard gave his castle and place his name?
With the help of two documents, one from the chapter of Saint-Cyprien, the other from the chapter of the Nouaillé Abbey, it could be established that the original name of Château-Larcher was "Mesgon" or "Metgon" .
Emmoin , the owner of the "Villa Mesgon" , donated several properties from his parents' estate to the Abbey of Nouaillé in August 857. These consisted of houses, a mill, fishing rights, various vineyards and arable land, everything was in the village of "Mesgon".
Thirty-one years later, in October 888, and in the first year of King Odo Ebbon , son of Emmoin and Bisaïeul, a transaction takes place between the Abbot of Saint-Cyprien de Poitiers , and the lord of Villa Mesgon and his castle: “In villa Mesgone , una cum ipsa castra (sic) ”. But this location called “villa Mesgon” is described in this document as “been in the countries of Poitiers, in the vicarie of Vivône (today Vivonne) and on the banks of the Clouère” : Latin “in pago Pictavo, in vicari Vicovedonense, super fluvium Clodera ".
In a document from 969, which has been received from the "Dom Fonteneau" , there is a precise and convincing passage. This document is the one with which Ebbon and Oda , as father and mother of Achard , founded the priory of the later Château-Larcher.
It speaks of a mill on the Clouère, "given to the clergy" , the document expresses: "Below our castle there has been a mill on the Clouère, near the tower, since ancient times, which has been called Metgon: prope turrem quoe antiquitus Metgon vocatur. ” This old tower still stands in the center of the village, but without its former crowning; For him the name “Tour von Mesgnen” has been preserved in the vernacular , others say Maguin (both certainly going back to Mesgon or Metgon ).
This is obviously the ancient Metgon and the original name of this place.
The Battle of Voulon
In 507 the Battle of Voulon took place between the Franks under Clovis I and the Visigoths under Alaric II . On the edge of the presumed battlefield lies Château-Larcher.
Voulon and not Vouillé
In a scientific study published in 1838 by the Society of Antique Dealers in the West, M. de Fontenelle Vaudord said:
“There was still a place in this Vicarie of Vivône that is not the main town of the current parish, of which it is good to linger a little: I would like to call it Mougon or Meugon (Villa Mesgone cum ipsa castra) and you read Incidentally, "castrum in villa Metgon". This place was near the river Clouère, which was called "fluvium Clodera". "
Fontenenelle wondered “whether it was not the camp of Clovis and Alaric” and he is certain “that this point is of great importance in determining the memorable battle of Vauclade, after which the monarchy of the Franks in Gaul was finally established ".
He goes on to say: "A battle that destroyed the first Visigoth empire in Gaul must have spread over a large area, over the entire plain between the Clouère and Clain, in other words over the fields of Metgon, in campo Mogothense"
Gregory of Tours and other historians state: "the Vaucladeus campus, by which Voulon is meant".
You can also read the report from the public meeting of the Society of Antique Dealers, by Mr Ménard, Doctor, Professor of History:
“Mr. von Beauregard has shown that this famous battle was not fought at the place called Vouillé , whose name has so far been poorly transmitted. He made it clear that the action had taken place south of Poitiers, at the old fords of the Clain, in Mougon, and especially Voulon, and it ended in the plains of Champagné-Saint-Hilaire. From now on one began, if you will, with a modern name for this famous battle, which in our annals is not that of Vouillé, but that of Voulon, which must be given to her. "
“Voulon and not Vouillé, as many modern historians call it, without any basis and against the testimony of the ancients,” writes the scientist Bishop Cousseau and regrets it.
The battlefield
As the backdrop for the great battle of 507, an equilateral triangular plot of land with a circumference of 3 × 18 km = 54 km and an area of around 140 km² is shown. One point of the triangle is to the northeast of Vivône (now Vivonne), in the village of Danlot, at a point where the Clouère and Clain rivers meet . This place is sheltered on one side by the agger of Baptresse , and on the other, by the oppidum called Roquillon above the reeds . There two sides of the triangle formed by the two rivers begin and end, one in Gencay and the other in Voulon . Across the third side of the triangle, between Voulon and Gencay, the Sycharet camp was located on the great plains of Champagné-Saint-Hilaire .
The center of the former battlefield is the village of La Mothe (now La Motte) -de-Ganne , about a mile (2.45 km) from the Clouère and Clain rivers , about 4 km from Château-Larcher and Vivône (now Vivonne) and 8 km from Champagné .
If Château-Larcher is really the earlier Metgon, which is very likely, as described by Hincmar in his writing “The life of Saint Remy” , the following Latin formulation applies: “In campo Mogothense, super fluvium Clinno, milliario-cimo from urbe Pictavis, bellum conserunt "!
The places Mesgon (today Château-Larcher), Vivone (today Vivonne), Gencay, Anché and La Mothe (today La Motte) -de-Ganne were the backdrop of the great battle of 507, as was the village of Voulon .
The battle
The battle in the spring of 507, between the Franks under Clovis I and the Visigoths under Alaric II, took place in the plains of Metgon (In campo Mogothense) on the Clain River (super fluvium Clinno), and ten miles (24.5 km) from Poitiers , which exactly corresponded to the Roman dimensions from Château-Larcher to the capital of Poitou.
The Visigoths were crushed. Alaric II fell at the hands of Clovis and the rest of his army withdrew to Spain. With the victory over the Wisigoten, Clovis initiated the great rule of the Franconian Empire , which lasted until the 9th century.
The main lines of the struggle are marked on a special map by M. Saint-Hippolyte .
The excavations of the sight of the alleged "Alarich Camp" were carried out in 2000.
Attractions
The village of Château-Larcher
Today's village is grouped around its originally fortified center, a castrum , from the meager ruins of the once proud castle, the remains of its fortifications, residential and utility buildings, the “city gate”, some round towers and defensive walls, and the heavily damaged church whose walls were integrated into the fortifications. Even today, the "castrum" towers over the small settlement on the elongated rock ridge, with the church on top. This ridge and the whole village stand on an "island" of the Clouère, which divides above the settlement, the arms of which encircle the island, and unite again shortly behind. The houses of Château-Larcher are mostly lined up on both sides of its main street, and some on side streets.
In the middle of the village, about opposite the former castle, there is a round tower directly on the main road, which towers over the adjoining two-storey building. It has no direct contact with the fortification of the former “castrum”, which is a little further back. It is the old mill tower, popularly known as the "Tour de Mesgnen" (Tower of Mesgnen), or "Tour de Maguin" . Both go back to Mesgon or Metgon .
The buildings described below are the castle , Notre-Dame and Saint-Cyprien church and the lantern of the dead , as is the previously mentioned dolmen monuments historiques .
The castrum and the castle of Château-Larcher
The castrum , or the fortress of Archard rebuilt at the end of the 10th century, extended from north to south over the entire length of a slender rock ridge, according to the sources about 200 pas (step) and not wider than 50 pas (each 70 - 90 cm ). This slopes gently on the long west side, which required complex fortifications there. The equally long east side protruded as a vertical rock wall from the plain of the floodplain, which allowed lower and less complex fortress structures there.
The actual castle towered up on the northeast corner of the fortress and was separated from the rest of the much larger section by a moat cut deep into the rock, making it strategically a kind of outer bailey . The castle or the château fort consisted of a mighty donjon (keep) and various towers and residential buildings in which the lords of the castle lived, which are only preserved in small remnants, and their former size and defensibility can hardly be guessed. The eastern parts of the castle extended over the vertical edge of the ridge, and there down to the plain of the valley floor. Vaulted cellars should also be preserved in the area of the château. The former second drawbridge, which was used to get into the castle, has been replaced by a wide wall over which the current path leads.
On the west side of the castrum there were five round defense towers. Two of them, roughly in the middle of the complex, framed the only access gate, the ensemble of which is still in a fairly acceptable condition. Presumably the towers, which are also called Towers of the Garden, were originally a little higher and their walls were surrounded by battlements . Between the two round towers, a wall extending over two floors is raised to the outside, in which a round arched portal is cut out. The upper floor was used to connect the two towers with each other, but remains open on the inside and is only covered. The gate opening has slots on both sides in which a portcullis could be lowered, which was raised to the upper floor in peacetime. Up until the 15th century, a drawbridge also protected access. In the tower walls you can still see the original slots of the loopholes .
On both sides of the gate towers, the high defensive walls of the fortress, which reached almost to the château in a northerly direction, were interrupted twice by round or semicircular towers. Towards the south, the defensive wall soon collided with the north-west corner of the church, whose western, southern and eastern outer walls were integrated into the fortifications of the castrum.
It was not until the 14th century that a strong, round defensive tower was added to the south-west corner of the church to reinforce the defensive capability on this corner. From the loopholes in the tower there was a field of fire of over 300 degrees.
Except for the main gate and some remnants in the northwest of the defensive wall, the defensive walls have almost disappeared down to their foundation walls. However, you can still largely understand their course today because they have been replaced by the western outer walls of the newly built residential buildings, mostly with masonry that looks similar to the defensive walls and with sparse windows. Between these house walls and the houses on the parallel street, areas of buildings and higher planting have remained free, thus allowing a largely unobstructed view of the ensemble of defensive walls. Monument offices were probably involved. On the inside of the former defensive walls are the row houses of today's residents, with small house gardens in front of them.
Of course, one also has to imagine living and utility buildings there in the Middle Ages that were built against the defensive walls that protect them. It is known that the servants' quarters and stables for livestock and slaughter cattle were located there. In one of these apartments there is a larger window in the former defensive wall, of which it is known that a cannon was placed there in the 15th and 16th centuries to defend the fortress.
On the almost parallel east side of the fortress, there were originally defensive walls and other larger residential and utility buildings between the moat and the church above the vertically sloping rock face. For example, the house of the guard is known, in whose hall justice was pronounced and where one could raise concerns and needs to the gentlemen. The Seneschal gave his assistance every fortnight. Opposite was the prison where convicts were punished. The buildings surrounded the so-called courtyard of honor , where the guard drilled.
These buildings included those of a small priory founded towards the end of the 10th century that housed four Benedictine monks. The clergy and the gentlemen of the château could enter the church on its north side through a separate door.
The fortress, rebuilt by Achard at the end of the 10th century, enjoyed an important strong position in the region in the period following the Middle Ages with its high level of defense.
The Hundred Years' War (1339-1453), which was largely determined by the struggle between France and England for the rule of Aquitaine , also caused immense damage to Château-Larcher. A document about an investigation from 1454 describes the circumstances in sad colors: “Taken and by storm, today by the English, tomorrow by the old warriors, half destroyed and burned, it almost coincided with the damage caused by Jeanne de Maillé (1331–1414) because the Protestants came twice and caused new devastation ”.
From 1504 to 1638 the restoration of the fortifications was organized. The people of Rochechouart were involved in this (various lords of Rochechouart were also lords of Château-Larcher, hence this connection), but they preferred to work on their accommodations. Soon the government did not pay for the family, who were interested in the facility as an agricultural farm. Their constant absence led to renewed deterioration of the buildings.
In 1680, the tax collector of Château-Larcher stated: "that the castle consists of nine towers with gryserie (?), Including that of the church, on the top of a rock, these are in good condition but the accommodation is not beautiful" .
At this point the presence of his masters had been absent for about fifty years. The buildings were not only exposed to weathering . The wild, uncontrolled use by a number of farmers who had settled here with their cattle quickly led to a terrible situation. In 1693, the "accumulation of damage was considered comprehensive".
The French Revolution in 1789 triggered a “wildfire” that ravaged the entire country. Almost everything that existed in the buildings of the old ruling apparatus and also church organizations was declared a "national property" and sold to the citizens for demolition. So it was at Château-Larcher, where all kinds of devastation occurred. The keep of the castle became the property of a Brassac. Above all, bars, stairs, doors, window crosses, paving stones, all stones that could be removed from the walls, even the rubble stones, were all sold and scattered. Every resident of Château-Larcher and the neighboring villages has conveniently made use of this "grandiose quarry" for use in their own new buildings. Except for the sparse remains preserved today, almost everything was removed. Two vaulted rooms of the casemates and other vaulted cellars are still preserved.
In 1810, the great hall of the guards was demolished and its building materials were bought by Mr. Neumann, mayor of Vivône (now Vivonne ). They helped him build his house on the banks of the Palais river, opposite the exhibition grounds in the canton's capital.
Shortly afterwards the fortress was passed on from its owner, the Baron von Cressac, to his daughter, Mrs. Marquise de Montcalm-Tryon. She then gave up this entirely. After that, nobody needed a permit to fetch building materials that could still be easily removed there.
In 1870 M. Albert Boutillier of Retail, a member of the Society of Antique Dealers in the West, bought the property. He trained in the field of modern restorations. He restored the kitchen fountain and gathered everything he found in the ruins.
The towers of the Châtelet portal were listed as a historical monument in 1912, the ruins of the castle and its donjon were also classified in 1927.
The excavations carried out between 1972 and 1980 became the castle's sights. The restored cellars and the fountain of the fortress as well as numerous objects from the Middle Ages could be secured. In particular, a large number of coins and everyday objects are kept in the excavation depot.
The castle has belonged to the municipality since 1997. It is intended to prepare the remaining parts of the fortress so that they can be made accessible to the public.
The Church of Notre-Dame and Saint-Cyprien
The Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Cyprien church is the Romanesque parish church of the parish of Château-Larcher. It is classified as a historic monument ( Monument historique ). The building was changed several times due to the effects of war and weather and the subsequent repairs.
The Lanterne des Morts (death lantern)
In the center of today's cemetery of Château-Larcher rises a cylindrical stele , which stands on a square base, a Romanesque architectural monument from the first years of the 13th century, with a long tradition of the cult of the dead . Such structures are called the death lantern .
The base measures approximately 50 × 50 cm and is 1.50 m high. It is surrounded on three sides by a broad, semicircular platform, to which three steps lead up on all sides. Immediately in front of the base, a square stone slab is placed on the pedestal, on which the pastor climbs in order to celebrate the funeral service on a small altar slab protruding from the base. The four upper corners of the square base are decorated with small " crabs ".
The 5.70 m high circular stone hollow cylinder with an outer diameter of 37 cm stands in the center of the base . It is crowned by a stone, pointed conical roof of almost 1.50 m high, the lower edge of which is marked with a double round profile. The surfaces of the cone are structured plastically in the manner of a wickerwork. The death lantern is crowned with a stone paw cross that was placed there by M. Mauduyt in 1840. Shortly below the edge of the roof there are small arched window openings pointing in all directions, the reveals of which are widened obliquely on all sides. The light of the death lantern falls through them and is supposed to show the risen ones the right path in the darkness. At the lower end of the hollow cylinder there is a fifth, but rectangular opening to the left of the altar, through which a burning oil light can be brought into the shaft and pulled up with a rope, deflected over a pulley at the top. In the Middle Ages, the funeral lanterns were lit every night or on specially designated days in honor of all those who died in the area. At some mass celebrations in the cemetery, the "Hosianna cross" from Palm Sunday was raised in the column .
Death lantern, circular step, altar
Death lantern, door opening in the column shaft
Death lantern, top step, altar, door
Death lantern, back
