Chazelles (Charente)
| Chazelles | ||
|---|---|---|
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| region | Nouvelle-Aquitaine | |
| Department | Charente | |
| Arrondissement | Angoulême | |
| Canton | Val de Tardoire | |
| Community association | La Rochefoucauld-Porte du Périgord | |
| Coordinates | 45 ° 39 ′ N , 0 ° 22 ′ E | |
| height | 81-136 m | |
| surface | 25.80 km 2 | |
| Residents | 1,558 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 60 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 16380 | |
| INSEE code | 16093 | |
 Chazelles - the townscape |
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Chazelles is a southwestern French municipality with 1558 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in the Charente in the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine .
location
Chazelles is about 90 meters above sea level. d. M .; the small river Bandiat - or a side canal - flow through the middle of the place, which is about 21 kilometers (driving distance) east of Angoulême and about 11 kilometers south of La Rochefoucauld . The northern neighboring towns of Pranzac , Bunzac and Rancogne are also worth seeing.
Population development
| year | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2007 | 2016 |
| Residents | 1067 | 1075 | 1315 | 1428 | 1390 | 1524 | 1552 |
At the first census in France in 1793, the place had 810 inhabitants; in the 19th century - after the incorporation of the district of Saint-Paul (1845) - the number fluctuated between 1100 and 1200.
economy
In addition to agriculture and viticulture, which served the population for self-sufficiency for centuries, limestone quarries were one of the town's main sources of income - the houses and churches in the area have been built from this material since the Middle Ages and the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York also comes from from the local quarries, most of which are no longer in operation because artificial stones have become significantly cheaper. There are also jobs in a sawmill and in the usual small trades (baker, butcher, etc.).
history
Little is known about the history of Chazelles, but some of the karst grottoes in the area were already inhabited or used as places of worship or burial during the Bronze Age; a ceramic bowl with incised symbols and human figures discovered in the Grotte du Quéroy is in the Musée d'Angoulême . In the Middle Ages Chazelles and Saint-Paul were settled; the residents of both places each built a small parish church.
Attractions
- The high crossing tower of the Romanesque parish church of Saint-Paul dominates the silhouette of the village, which is situated in a depression. In the 16th or 17th century it was rebuilt into an unadorned fortified church due to wandering robbery gangs, which offered the inhabitants of the village protection in crisis situations: In the west it was given mighty buttresses to reinforce the original - not very stable - rubble stone masonry; At the same time, the crossing tower was raised to its present height and provided with a - previously uncovered - guard and defense platform . Inside you can clearly see the original single nave of the church building; the north aisle is a later addition. The nave is not vaulted, but covered by an open roof structure. The unplastered, stone-faced walls give the church interior a primeval impression; The vaulted apse with three extremely narrow and formerly unglazed window openings is also very harmonious . The church building was recognized as a monument historique in 1977 ; a bronze bell from 1552 was already entered in the inventory list in 1942.
- The Saint-Martin church also dates from the 12th century. About 100 years later it was given a bell storey built in Gothic style on the crossing tower. In the 19th century the nave was extended to the west and the entire facade was renewed, on the south side of which a beautiful Gothic stone sarcophagus is exhibited. In the course of this construction work, the nave was vaulted and the former possibly semicircular apse was replaced by a flat choir closure .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bronze Age ceramic bowl in the Musée d'Angoulême
- ↑ Chazelles, Église Saint-Paul in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- ↑ Chazelles, Cloche de l'Église Saint-Paul in the Base Palissy of the French Ministry of Culture (French)