Coulgens
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Coulgens Colgent |
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| region | Nouvelle-Aquitaine | |
| Department | Charente | |
| Arrondissement | Angoulême | |
| Canton | Val de Tardoire | |
| Community association | La Rochefoucauld-Porte du Périgord | |
| Coordinates | 45 ° 49 ′ N , 0 ° 17 ′ E | |
| height | 66-126 m | |
| surface | 11.70 km 2 | |
| Residents | 537 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 46 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 16560 | |
| INSEE code | 16107 | |
 Place and church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste |
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Coulgens ( Occitan : Colgent ) is a municipality and a town with 537 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in the western French department of Charente in the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine . The community consists of several hamlets ( hameaux ) and individual farmsteads .
location
The place Coulgens is about 500 m south of the river Tardoire in the old cultural landscape of the Angoumois at an altitude of about 80 m above sea level. d. M. and is about 24 km (driving distance) in a north-easterly direction from the city of Angoulême .
Population development
| year | 1800 | 1851 | 1901 | 1954 | 1999 | 2013 |
| Residents | 762 | 844 | 529 | 394 | 382 | 515 |
The population decline in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century is mainly due to the loss of jobs as a result of the phylloxera crisis and the increasing mechanization of agriculture . The slight population increase that has been observed since the turn of the millennium, on the other hand, is largely due to the proximity to the city of Angoulême and the significantly lower property prices in the country.
economy
While the inhabitants of the village lived for centuries on the yields of their fields and gardens, viticulture was promoted in the late Middle Ages and early modern times , which - after the phylloxera crisis in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - did not regain its old importance . Tourism also plays a not insignificant role for the economic life of the municipality in the form of renting holiday apartments ( gîtes ).
history
Coulgens lies at the intersection of two former Roman roads - the Via Agrippa from Saintes ( Mediolanum Santonum ) to Lyon ( Lugdunum ) on the one hand and the road from Angoulême ( Ecolisma ) to Bourges ( Avaricum ) via Argenton-sur-Creuse on the other.
In the Middle Ages, the place was on a branch route of the Way of St. James ( Via Turonensis ). The Counts of Angoulême expanded the place for their strategic goals. Nothing is known about the destruction during the Hundred Years War (1337–1453) and the Huguenot Wars (1562–1598).
Attractions
- The former priory church and today's parish church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste is a building from the 11th and 12th centuries towered over by a high crossing tower with a largely unadorned apse made of roughly hewn stones . This is structured by simple buttresses and ends at the top in a console frieze with animal heads. The animal head motif is repeated above the simple archivolt portal of the west facade. The compact nave is spanned by a barrel vault with belt arches as beams ; the apse with its dome is not structured. The remains of a dark mourning or memorial ribbon ( liter funéraire ) painted on in the 15th or 16th century can still be seen on the northern side wall ; underneath is a fresco of St. Barbara . Church construction has been recognized as a monument historique since 1955 .
- outside
- The towering Logis de Sigogne was the seat of a country nobleman or landlord and is located in the hamlet of Sigogne ( 45 ° 49 ′ 37 ″ N , 0 ° 16 ′ 14 ″ W ) about two kilometers to the north-west . The building dates from the 13th to 15th centuries and consists of a residential tower ( donjon ) with an adjoining stair tower on a hexagonal floor plan; the previously existing residential wing ( corps de logis ) has disappeared. The privately owned building was recognized as a Monument Historique in 1986 .
Web links
- Coulgens, church - photos + information (French)
- Coulgens, Logis de Sigogne - Photos + information (French)
Individual evidence
- ^ Coulgens - Viticulture
- ^ Eglise Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Coulgens in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- ↑ Logis de Sigogne, Coulgens in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)