Langeais

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Langeais
Langeais coat of arms
Langeais (France)
Langeais
region Center-Val de Loire
Department Indre-et-Loire
Arrondissement Quinone
Canton Langeais (main town)
Community association Touraine Ouest Val de Loire
Coordinates 47 ° 20 '  N , 0 ° 24'  E Coordinates: 47 ° 20 '  N , 0 ° 24'  E
height 36-109 m
surface 64.55 km 2
Residents 4,666 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 72 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 37130
INSEE code 37123
Website http://www.langeais.fr

Langeais - the townscape

Langeais is a 4,666 inhabitants (as of January 1 2017) scoring French community in the region Center-Val de Loire in Indre-et-Loire . The municipality is part of the Loire-Anjou-Touraine Regional Nature Park .

structure

District former
INSEE code 		Area
(km²)		 Altitude
(m) 		Population
(2016)		 Density
(inh. Per km²)
Les Essards 37102 04.17 52-105 .0164 39.3
Langeais (administrative headquarters)00 37123 60.38 36-109 4,448 73.7

location

Langeais lies at a height of approx. 50 meters above sea level. d. M. on the north bank of the Loire about 25 kilometers (driving distance) southwest of Tours .

Langeais is surrounded by six neighboring communities:

Avrillé-les-Ponceaux Mazières-de-Touraine
Continvoir compass Cinq-Mars-la-Pile
Côteaux-sur-Loire La Chapelle-aux-Naux

Population development

In the 19th century the community, which also includes several hamlets and farmsteads, consistently had between 2200 and 3600 inhabitants.

local community Population (Census)
1962 1968 1975 1982 1990 1999 2006 2008 2011 2013 2016
Les Essards00 173 156 109 107 153 153 156 157 154 152 164
Langeais 3,849 3,907 3,902 4.142 3,960 3,865 3,861 3,992 4,059 4,248 4,448
Langeais 4.022 4.063 4.011 4,249 4.113 4.018 4.017 4.149 4.213 4,400 4,612
Source: Cassini and INSEE

The (total) population of the new municipality of Langeais was determined by adding up the municipality of Les Essards, which was independent until the end of 2016.

economy

For centuries, today's small town was part of a largely self-sufficient agriculture in which viticulture also played a role. The Louis XI. Commissioned construction of the castle on the site of a high medieval predecessor building led to the emergence of small craft businesses. In the 19th century Langeais was famous for its melon farming . Since the 1960s, cultural and wine tourism have played an important role in the economic life of the small town; the surrounding vineyards are part of the Touraine region in the greater Loire wine region .

The place has a train station on the Tours – Saint-Nazaire railway line .

history

The La Roche-Cotard mask is an artifact from the Moustérien that is known as a proto-figurine to the works of art of the Upper Paleolithic. It was found in 2002 in the entrance area of ​​the La Roche-Cotard grotto near Langeais, which was discovered in 1912.

Donjon in the castle garden

The place existed as Alangavia as early as the 5th century . Towards the end of the 10th century, Count Fulko Nerra of Anjou had a castle built on the hill above the present-day town in order to emphasize his territorial claims against Count Odo von Blois . This fell to the Plantagenet family in 1044 and came to the English crown with Henry II in 1154. At the beginning of the 13th century, Langeais fell to France as a result of a victory by the French King Philip August over Johann Ohneland . In the Hundred Years War (1428), the British, who had been victorious up to that point, only released it on condition that it be dragged down to the Donjon . Only a few remnants of the donjon wall remain from this castle. An imposing new castle was built in the years 1465–1469 on the orders of the king to protect the crown domain ; King Charles VIII and Anne de Bretagne married here on December 6, 1491 . Langeais remained royal property until 1631. In 1886 it was bought by Jacques Siegfried , who was responsible for furnishing the castle with historical furniture; he bequeathed the castle, including furnishings and works of art, to the Institut de France in 1904 .

On January 1, 2017, the parish of Les Essards was incorporated.

Attractions

Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste
Maison de Rabelais

Langeais Castle

Further

  • The remains of the rectangular donjon built in 950, the oldest in France, are located on an artificial hill ( motte ) in the garden area of ​​the castle grounds.
  • The Romanesque church of Saint-Laurent from the 11th / 12th centuries. In the 18th century it was a priory church of Beaulieu Abbey , later it was a parish church until the beginning of the French Revolution . The unadorned building stands about a kilometer west of today's town center and has been classified as a monument historique since 1990 .
  • The single-nave parish church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste is dedicated to John the Baptist . It dates from the 12th century, but was changed in the 15th and 19th centuries and shows Romanesque, Gothic and Neo-Gothic components. The church has been recognized as a Monument historique since 1914 and 1933 .
  • The ground floor of the so-called Maison de Rabelais , which dates back to the 16th century, now houses a café. It has been recognized as a monument historique since 1943 .
  • Two other Renaissance houses were also placed under monument protection in 1943 and 1944.
  • The suspension bridge over the Loire was built between 1846 and 1849 and rebuilt in the 1950s after it was destroyed in World War II .

Town twinning

Others

  • Honoré de Balzac wrote the novel "The Duchess of Langeais" ( La Duchesse de Langeais / original title: Ne touchez pas la hache ), published in 1834 .

literature

  • Le Patrimoine des Communes d'Indre-et-Loire. Flohic Editions, Volume 1, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-84234-115-5 , pp. 657-665.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Population figures retrospectively from January 1, 2016
  2. ↑ Église Saint-Laurent, Langeais in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  3. ↑ Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Langeais in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  4. ↑ Maison dite de Rabelais, Langeais in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  5. ^ Immeuble, Langeais in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  6. ^ Immeuble, Langeais in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)