Mérens-les-Vals
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Mérens-les-Vals Merens las Vals |
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| region | Occitania | |
| Department | Ariège | |
| Arrondissement | Foix | |
| Canton | Haute-Ariège | |
| Community association | Haute Ariège | |
| Coordinates | 42 ° 40 ′ N , 1 ° 50 ′ E | |
| height | 929-2,840 m | |
| surface | 80.12 km 2 | |
| Residents | 168 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 2 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 09110 | |
| INSEE code | 09189 | |
 Mérens-les-Vals - Saint-Pierre church ruins |
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Mérens-les-Vals is a place and a small municipality with 168 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Ariège department in the Occitania region of southern France .
location
Mérens-les-Vals is located in the Pyrenees , at an altitude of over 1000 meters, at the intersection of three river valleys ( Ariège , Nabre and Morgoulliou), about nine kilometers south of Ax-les-Thermes . To Andorra la Vella it is about 49 kilometers in a south-westerly direction.
The place also has a train station.
Population development
| year | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2006 | 2012 |
| Residents | 195 | 157 | 143 | 149 | 180 | 188 | 178 |
In 1390 there were 64 fireplaces, which suggests a population of around 400 to 500 people. In the middle of the 19th century the place still had around 800 inhabitants.
economy
Mérens-les-Vals lives mainly from agriculture (milk and cheese production). The rental of holiday homes ( gîtes ) also plays an important role in the economic life of the small community.
history
Traces of early human settlement have not yet been found in Merens. It is therefore assumed that in Gallo-Roman times the square was initially only used as a summer pasture for cattle and only gradually developed into a permanent settlement.
The place is first mentioned in the 10th century; at that time he was probably subordinate to the Abbey of Sainte-Marie de Lagrasse . Later it belonged to the county of Cerdanya , in the 12th and 13th centuries to the county of Foix .
Attractions
- Before it was destroyed by Spanish partisan groups ( miquelets ) during the Napoleonic wars, the Saint-Pierre church was one of the very few typical Pyrenees churches on the French side. In Andorra (Pal, Canillo ) and especially in the Vall de Boí ( Sant Climent de Taüll and Santa Maria de Taüll ), which belongs to Catalonia , the perhaps most beautiful preserved examples of this type of building can be found. A characteristic feature of these churches is a three- or four-storey flank tower, the window and sound openings of which are becoming larger and larger towards the top, which on the one hand helps to save material and on the other hand gives the building a certain visual lightness. This tower shape is sometimes referred to as ' Lombardy ', as there are similar examples in northern Italy ( Pomposa and others). Unlike the Catalan examples mentioned, the church of Mérens-les-Vals had only one nave; its apse was partially built into the mountain. The church should be dated around the year 1100 or shortly thereafter; the stones are relatively precisely carved and arranged in even layers in the masonry . The upper twin windows of the tower are slightly deepened by an almost square frame, which could indicate knowledge of Moorish architecture ( alfiz ). The tower ends with a circular arched frieze .
- In the village itself there is still a single-arched late medieval stone bridge over the Ariège.
Web links
- Mérens-les-Vals - history etc. (French)