Gaillon

Gaillon
region	Normandy
Department	Your
Arrondissement	Les Andelys
Canton	Gaillon (main town)
Community association	Your-Madrie-Seine
Coordinates	49 ° 10 ′ N , 1 ° 20 ′ E Coordinates: 49 ° 10 ′ N , 1 ° 20 ′ E
height	8-144 m
surface	10.19 km 2
Residents	6,924 (January 1, 2017)
Population density	679 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code	27600
INSEE code	27275
Website	http://www.ville-gaillon.fr/
	; Church square, in the background the castle

Gaillon is a commune with 6924 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in the Eure in the region of Normandy . The cityscape is dominated by the mighty gate system of the Renaissance castle on the mountain promontory above the city.

geography

Gaillon lies on the edge of the Madrie plateau on the lower reaches of the Seine , on wooded slopes that border the river valley, around 41 kilometers by road southeast of Rouen . The distance to Les Andelys is 13 kilometers, Vernon 14 kilometers, Louviers 16 kilometers, Val-de-Reuil 18 kilometers and Évreux 23 kilometers. In addition to the Seine, the Grammont brook also flows through the municipality.

Gaillon is assigned to a type Cfb (according to Köppen and Geiger ) climate zone : warm, moderate rainy climate (C), fully humid (f), warmest month below 22 ° C, at least four months above 10 ° C (b). There is a maritime climate with a moderate summer.

history

The place name

The place name Gaillon appears several times in Middle Latin in the 12th century as Gaillo , Guaillum , Wallio , Gaalonii . Albert Dauzat and Charles Rostaing assume a development from the Germanic first name Wadal ( Ernst Förstemann mentions Wadilus ), but the original ending on -o or -one , which according to Beaurepaire was not used with a Germanic personal name in the place name, speaks against it. He suggests Wadellio (ne) 'place of a ford' as the original meaning. Before the French Revolution (1789–1799) the community was called Gaillon-l'Archevêque ('Gaillon the Archbishop') and was therefore renamed Montagne-sur-Gaillon during the Revolution .

antiquity

The archaeologists could not find any trace of a Celtic oppidum in Gaillon , but found the remains of a flourishing community with public baths and Gallo-Roman temple in the neighboring parish of Saint-Aubin-sur-Gaillon . Saint-Aubin was also the parent parish of Gaillon in the early Christian period.

middle Ages

View from the castle over the city

In the early Middle Ages, a Norman castle was built on the chalk cliff to protect the Normandy border from the King of France. This thesis is supported by the mention of the fort in a document from Duke Richard II (966-1027). It was part of a defense system based on several castles along the border with the Kingdom of France . These included the castles of Évreux , Pacy-sur-Eure , Vernon and Gasny .

In 1192 the French King Philip II conquered the castle of Gaillon in the course of his battles in Normandy against Richard the Lionheart . After the loss of many Norman border castles, Richard decided around 1195 to have the Château-Gaillard in Les Andelys built a few kilometers further on the other bank of the Seine .

After Normandy was conquered by the French kingdom, the place became a fief of the Cadoc family . The current city coat of arms goes back to the coat of arms of this family.

The King Louis IX. sold the place to Eudes Rigaud , Archbishop of Rouen .

The renaissance castle

Building wing in need of renovation inside the palace complex

In 1453 one of his successors, Archbishop Guillaume d'Estouteville , began building a complex that, in his opinion, deserved the name “castle”. Cardinal Georges d'Amboise expanded the complex from 1502 to 1509 into one of the largest and most magnificent Renaissance castles in France.

The gate of the castle

In 1508, Louis XII visited and his wife Anne de Bretagne the place. Other high-profile visitors in the feudal era included the kings Heinrich III. , Heinrich IV. , Louis XIV. And the Chancellor Pierre Séguier . The Cardinal Dominique de La Rochefoucauld received Benjamin Franklin and Louis XVI here.

The successors of Cardinal d'Amboise endeavored to preserve the complex as well as to add minor extensions and decorations. In 1572 Charles de Bourbon built the Charterhouse on the banks of the Seine on the Aubevoye plain as a counterpart to the secular palace. The son of the minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert , who in turn was Archbishop of Rouen, had the castle modernized by the architects François Mansart and André Le Nôtre .

In 1754 a fire devastated the facility. The Carthusian Order then repaired it and used it as a monastery until 1790. The buildings were looted and damaged during the French Revolution. They were left to decay. Alexandre Lenoir had some parts exhibited in the courtyard of the Musée des Monuments français in Paris. During the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte , the castle was converted into a prison and its decay was sealed. In 1834 the castle was sold to a farmer. The purchase agreement bore the note: Ce domaine est des plus beaux de France ('This property is one of the most beautiful in France').

Younger story

In 1866, the Association of Pensioners ( colonie des Douaires ) founded an agricultural educational institution for young offenders on site. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) the place was under Prussian and German occupation from December 1870 to March 1871.

Between 1899 and 1929 and 1932, the Hillclimb Course de côte de Gaillon was held, which always attracted top-class drivers such as SF Edge , Jules Goux or Albert Divo . The 1910 event is also considered to be the first motorsport event in which a Bugatti vehicle took part.

During the Second World War (1939-1945) Gaillon was captured by the German Wehrmacht on the morning of June 10, 1940 . In the summer of 1944, during Operation Overlord, the Allied Air Force bombed the city.

The restoration of parts of the palace complex began in the mid-1990s.

Population development

year	1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2009	2017
Residents	3152	3604	4318	5845	6303	6861	7224	6924
Sources: Cassini and INSEE

Town twinning

Gaillon maintains a twinning with the German city of Sarstedt .

Attractions

The large gatehouse of the Renaissance castle above the town is the town's landmark. It was restored in 1980. Some of the parts of the large palace complex behind it are in dire need of renovation.
The old town center is characterized by numerous half-timbered houses from the 18th and 19th centuries in the Norman style.
Ruins of the collegiate college Collégiale Saint-Antoine from the 13th century, destroyed in the 18th century.
The Saint-Ouen church was built around 1774. Its furnishings date from the 15th to 18th centuries.
Oratory Saint-Jean-Baptiste (John the Baptist) from the 17th and 19th centuries
Chapel of the youth reformatory from the 19th century
Manoir de l'Aunay from the 17th century
Wash house ( Lavoir ) from the second half of the 18th century

economy

Protected Geographical Indications (IGP) apply to pork (Porc de Normandie) , poultry (Volailles de Normandie) and cider ( Cidre de Normandie and Cidre normand ) in the municipality .

Personalities

Albert Demangeon (* 1872 in Cormeilles , † 1940 in Paris ) was a geographer and professor at the Sorbonne . He spent his childhood in Gaillon.

literature

Elisabeth Chirol: Le Château de Gaillon: a premier foyer de la Renaissance en France. M. Lecerf, Rouen 1952.
Thierry Garnier: Mémoires de deux Cités, Gaillon historique et mystique. Volume 1 and 2, M2G éd., 2005.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b La ville de Gaillon. In: Annuaire-Mairie.fr. Retrieved July 21, 2012 (French).

^ François de Beaurepaire, Les noms des communes et anciennes paroisses de l'Eure , éditions Picard 1981. Page 114.

^ Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de lieux en France , éditions Larousse 1968.

^ François de Beaurepaire NCE 114.

↑ Les noms des communes et anciennes paroisses de l'Eure , éditions Picard 1981.

↑ Roger de Figuères: Les noms révolutionnaires des communes de France . Lists par départments et liste générale alphabétique. Au siège de la Société, Paris 1901, LCCN 31-005093 , p. 21 (French, online ).

↑ Auguste Le Prevost : Mémoires et notes de M. Auguste Le Prevost pour servir à l'histoire du département de l'Eure . Ed .: Léopold Delisle , Louis Paulin Passy. tape 2 . Auguste Herissey, Évreux 1864, p. 144–155 (French, from Archive.org [accessed July 1, 2010]).

^ Hugh G. Conway: Bugatti: Le Pur-sang des Automobiles . Haynes Publishing Group, Sparkford 1987, ISBN 978-0-85429-538-8 , pp. 21 (English, first edition: 1963).

↑ A.-V. de Walle: Évreux et l'Eure pendant la guerre . Charles Herissey, Évreux 2000, ISBN 2-914417-05-5 , pp. 28 + 176 (French, first edition: 1946).

^ ^A ^b Daniel Delattre, Emmanuel Delattre: L'Eure, les 675 communes . Editions Delattre, Grandvilliers 2000, pp. 124 f . (French).

[annu-1] La ville de Gaillon. In: Annuaire-Mairie.fr. Retrieved July 21, 2012 (French).

[2] François de Beaurepaire, Les noms des communes et anciennes paroisses de l'Eure , éditions Picard 1981. Page 114.

[3] Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de lieux en France , éditions Larousse 1968.

[4] François de Beaurepaire NCE 114.

[5] Les noms des communes et anciennes paroisses de l'Eure , éditions Picard 1981.

[6] Roger de Figuères: Les noms révolutionnaires des communes de France . Lists par départments et liste générale alphabétique. Au siège de la Société, Paris 1901, LCCN 31-005093 , p. 21 (French, online ).