Margon (Hérault)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Margon
Margon coat of arms
Margon (France)
Margon
region Occitania
Department Herault
Arrondissement Beziers
Canton Cazouls-lès-Beziers
Community association Les Avant-Monts
Coordinates 43 ° 29 ′  N , 3 ° 18 ′  E Coordinates: 43 ° 29 ′  N , 3 ° 18 ′  E
height 57-125 m
surface 4.47 km 2
Residents 703 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 157 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 34320
INSEE code 34149

Margon - town view

Margon ( Occitan : identical) is a place and a municipality in the south of France with 703 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Hérault department in the Occitania region .

location

The circular village ( Circulade ) Margon is located on a hill at an altitude of about 60 meters above sea level. d. M. about 23 kilometers (driving distance) northeast of Béziers ; the small town of Pézenas is only twelve kilometers to the south-east. The round villages of Gabian , Roujan , Caux and Alignan-du-Vent are within a radius of about five kilometers.

Population development

year 1968 1975 1982 1990 1999 2006 2017
Residents 202 168 156 209 244 318 703

The population of the community has remained largely unchanged since the 19th century despite the phylloxera crisis and the progressive mechanization of agriculture . Due to the relative proximity to the city of Béziers and the significantly lower property prices in the countryside, there has been a significant increase in the population in recent years.

economy

In earlier times, the residents of the village lived largely on self-sufficiency from agriculture, with both grain and wine being grown. In addition, they ran a little cattle (pigs, chickens, etc.). As in many places in Languedoc , viticulture dominated in the 19th century; the local winegrowers' cooperative markets the wine produced here through the appellations Côtes de Thongue , Pays d'Herault and Pays d'Oc . Because of the sales crisis for French wine, however, only about half of the agricultural land is still viniculture; on the other half, grain ( wheat , maize ) and sunflowers are grown again.

history

There is no evidence of Roman or Gallo-Roman origins of the place. There is evidence of a medieval castle since the 11th century; The beginnings of the Circulade are likely to fall at this time , as the local parish church was built in the 12th century and integrated into the ring of houses.

Attractions

Saint-Christophe Church
  • The old town center of Margon belongs to the type of Circulades - round villages that were built around a core consisting of a castle and / or church for defense reasons and whose outer house front served as a replacement for an expensive city wall. In Margon the ring of houses is not completely closed - on the rear side of the castle there is a slope that could hardly be climbed and therefore did not have to be defended.
  • The castle ( château or domaine ) dates from the 16th century and rises on the site of a previous medieval building from the 11th and 13th centuries. The consoles of the medieval battlements ( machicoulis ) protrude from the brickwork of the round corner towers . The privately owned building was recognized as a Monument historique in 1937 . The symmetrically laid out garden can be visited in the summer months.
  • The parish church of Saint-Christophe dates from the 12th century; only the facade and the bell tower were fundamentally redesigned in the 17th century - the date 1652 is carved on the portal. As construction material roughly hewn were mainly rubble used nevertheless in layers and in the dressing were walled; the corner stones , however, are precisely carved. The single nave interior of the church is spanned by a barrel vault; the polygonally broken apse is vaulted by a dome . Parts of the equipment (altar, baptismal font) are under monument protection.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Château, Margon in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)