Grassac

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Grassac
Graçac
Grassac coat of arms
Grassac (France)
Grassac
region Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department Charente
Arrondissement Angoulême
Canton Val de Tardoire
Community association La Rochefoucauld-Porte du Périgord
Coordinates 45 ° 35 '  N , 0 ° 24'  E Coordinates: 45 ° 35 '  N , 0 ° 24'  E
height 107-227 m
surface 28.23 km 2
Residents 323 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 11 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 16380
INSEE code 16158

Grassac - town view

Grassac ( Occitan : Gracac ) is a municipality and a town with 323 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 Grassac lies in the old cultural landscape of the Angoumois , part of the Charente , at an altitude of about 175 m above sea level. d. M. and is about 26 km (driving distance) in a south-easterly direction from the city of Angoulême .

Population development

year 1800 1851 1901 1954 1999 2013
Residents 696 789 478 305 274 312

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 .

economy

While the residents of the village lived for centuries as self-sufficiency from the yields of their fields and gardens, viticulture was promoted in the late Middle Ages and in the early modern period , but this was almost stopped after the phylloxera crisis in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tourism also plays a not insignificant role for the economic life of the municipality in the form of renting holiday apartments ( gîtes ).

history

Since 1197, the manorial rule ( seigneurie ) over Grassac was for a long time with the abbey of Bourgueil on the Loire , which, however, let it be administered to a priory dependent on it in Angoulême. In 1529 Pope Clement VII annexed the place and its parish to the Abbey of Saint-Ausone in Angoulême. In the absence of existing records, little is known about the destruction during the Hundred Years War (1337–1453) and the Huguenot Wars (1562–1598).

Attractions

Church Saint-Jean-Baptiste
Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste , aisles with a central arcade
  • With the exception of the quarry stone facade, which shows an original triumphal arch scheme, which can still be assigned to the late 11th century, the parish church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste , built from precisely hewn stones, was built in the first half of the 12th century. After being destroyed in the wars of religion in the 16th century, it was rebuilt with a second ship on the north side. Both naves are separated by a central arcade and spanned by an open roof structure with tie bars. The ceiling of the Vierungsjoch has a hole in the middle so that the bell (s) can be rung with the help of ropes . The apse has the usual dome vault , but is otherwise completely unadorned and not structured. The overall rather simple rural church building has been recognized as a monument historique since 1993 .
outside
Logis de la Bréchinie
  • The two-storey Logis de la Bréchinie, with a mansard roof with porthole windows , is located about one and a half kilometers southeast of the town ( 45 ° 34 ′ 29 ″  N , 0 ° 24 ′ 58 ″  E ). It was the former seat of a landlord who was dependent on the Château de Marthon . Some parts of the building complex with barn and pigeon house ( pigeonnier ) date from the 16th century, but today's external impression is determined by extensions and additions from the early 18th century. Inside, the main building ( corps de logis ) was adapted to the taste of the time in the 19th century. The rural palace in need of renovation is privately owned and has also been recognized as a monument historique since 1993 .
  • The ruins of the Château d'Horte are about 1 km northwest of today's town.
  • The Russian Orthodox Church of Doumérac , built in the 1990s, is located in the hamlet of the same name.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Grassac - Viticulture
  2. ^ Eglise Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Grassac in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  3. ↑ Logis de la Bréchinie, Grassac in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)