Mas-Saintes-Puelles
Mas-Saintes-Puelles Mas Santas Puèlas |
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region | Occitania | |
Department | Aude | |
Arrondissement | Carcassonne | |
Canton | Le Bassin Chaurien | |
Community association | Castelnaudary Lauragais Audois | |
Coordinates | 43 ° 19 ′ N , 1 ° 53 ′ E | |
height | 164-324 m | |
surface | 27.63 km 2 | |
Residents | 922 (January 1, 2017) | |
Population density | 33 inhabitants / km 2 | |
Post Code | 11400 | |
INSEE code | 11225 | |
![]() Saintes-Puelles church |
Mas-Saintes-Puelles ( Occitan : Mas Santas Puèlas ) is a French commune with 922 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Aude department in the Occitanie region .
location
Mas-Saintes-Puelles is located on a hill in the southeast of the Lauragais landscape , about 53 kilometers (driving distance) in a southeast direction from Toulouse . Castelnaudary is about 8 kilometers to the east . It is about 48 kilometers to the south-east to Carcassonne .
Population development
year | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2006 | 2016 |
Residents | 682 | 617 | 640 | 720 | 805 | 876 | 916 |
Due to its central location on the old trading route Narbonne-Carcassonne-Toulouse and not far from the Canal du Midi , Mas-Saintes-Puelles has never been as depopulated as other places in the Lauragais. In the last decades - due to the proximity to the A61 motorway and the creation of new jobs in an industrial zone - the population has increased again.
economy
As in most places in the Lauragais (also called Pays de la Cocagne = 'Land of plenty'), the cultivation, processing and trade of woad ( pastel ) played an important role in the economic life of the comparatively wealthy city in the late Middle Ages and in the early modern period . But the cultivation of pastel was largely abandoned as early as the 18th century - it had gradually been pushed out of the market by the new dye indigo .
history
The name of the community Mas-Saintes-Puelles is derived in a legendary tradition from the virgins who are said to have washed and buried the body of St. Saturninus ( Saint-Sernin ) after his martyrdom in Toulouse (3rd century); they were then expelled from the city and resettled here.
In the 12th century there was a fortified settlement ( castrum ) on the site of the later town , the inhabitants of which at least partially professed their belief in the Cathars . During the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229) the place is not mentioned. In 1242, a group of Cathar assassins led by Pierre Roger II de Mirepoix stopped here on their way to Avignonet . Two women from Mas-Saintes-Puelles ( Gersande and her daughter Gaillarde ) died at the stake ( bûcher ) on the Montségur (1244).
In the 14th century the Augustinians founded a convent here for the purpose of re-evangelization. During the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) the place was set on fire by the soldiers of the 'Black Prince' ( Edward of Woodstock ).
In the 16th century, a large part of the population joined Protestantism , while the neighboring town of Castelnaudary remained Catholic. Allegedly there was also a secret meeting between Henry of Navarre and Catherine de Medici , who was then Countess des Lauragais, near Mas-Saintes-Puelles. Because of alleged or actual attacks on merchants and traders, King Ludwig XIII. in 1622 the complete destruction of the city. Mas-Saintes-Puelles was rebuilt in the second half of the 17th century; this time Catholicism prevailed. A Mercedarian monastery , whose founder Petrus Nolascus is said to have been born in Mas-Saintes-Puelles in the 12th century, was also founded in the 17th century.
Attractions
- The Église des Saintes-Puelles et de Saint-Pierre-Nolasque is the parish church of the place. Only the Gothic portal and the tower - square below and octagonal above - have survived from the original building.
- The Maison Nicol or Maison Gleyzes is a rather nondescript building from the 18th century. It has been recognized as a monument historique since 1964 .
- In the vicinity of the village there are some - partially restored - windmills, some of which were also used in the 19th century for grinding limestone (the basic material for gypsum ).
- There are still two poteries that can also be visited.
Personalities
- Petrus Nolascus (* around 1182, † around 1249) founder of the Mercedarian Order , canonized in 1655