Meschers-sur-Gironde

Meschers-sur-Gironde
region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department	Charente-Maritime
Arrondissement	Rochefort
Canton	Saintonge Estuaire
Community association	Royan Atlantique
Coordinates	45 ° 33 ′ N , 0 ° 57 ′ W Coordinates: 45 ° 33 ′ N , 0 ° 57 ′ W
height	0-39 m
surface	15.98 km 2
Residents	3,110 (January 1, 2017)
Population density	195 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code	17132
INSEE code	17230
Website	www.meschers.com
	; Meschers-sur-Gironde - View of the town with Église Saint-Saturnin

Meschers-sur-Gironde is a western French municipality with 3110 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in the department of Charente-Maritime in the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine .

Toponym

The name Meschers is traced back to Celtic origins: In the 9th century, the place name Miscaria is mentioned for the first time, which could refer to the Celtic words mis (“bad”) and caria (“stone”). During the French Revolution it became Meschers .

location

Meschers-sur-Gironde is located in the south of the Côte de Beauté on the right bank of the Gironde in the historic cultural landscape of the Saintonge , which in turn is part of the Charente landscape . The city of Royan is only about 15 kilometers (driving distance) northwest. The coastal town of Talmont-sur-Gironde with the spectacularly cliff -top Romanesque church Ste-Radegonde is only four kilometers to the south-east.

Population development

year	1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2006	2016
Residents	1339	1475	1546	1649	1862	2234	2619	3103

In the 19th century Meschers-sur-Gironde always had between 900 and 1,150 inhabitants. After that, the number of inhabitants steadily decreased until it reached its lowest point in 1931 with 816 inhabitants. In the last few decades the population has increased significantly again, which is mainly due to the creation of jobs as a result of the increase in tourism and slightly lower rents and land prices compared to the city of Royan.

economy

Centuries ago agriculture and fishing played the dominant roles in the community's economic life. This belongs to the Bois ordinaires et communs of the Cognac wine-growing region , but because of the sales crisis for expensive brandies and even for wine, hardly any vines are planted; the farmers in the area have returned to 'normal' agriculture. Tourism has played the most important role in the local economy since the 1960s.

history

Around 1800 BC In the area of the Gironde estuary and on the Arvert peninsula, the Ligurians are suspected, but they did so around 800 BC. Were ousted by the Santons and other Celtic tribal groups. The Romans left no traces on the municipality of Meschers, but several small finds have been made from the Gallo-Roman period. In 418 the Visigoths invaded the area; however, after the lost battle of Vouillé (507) against the Franks, they were pushed to the Iberian Peninsula . As a result, the Franks themselves concentrated more on their heartland in central France, so that largely independent areas of rule could develop in the south and south-west of France - this also included the duchy (at times even kingship) of Aquitaine .

In the 12th century, the ducal dignity of Aquitaine passed to the last heiress Eleanor , who married the French King Louis VII at the age of 15 (1137) . However, the marriage remained childless and was broken within a few years, so that they divorced in 1152; This cleared the way for Eleanor's second marriage (1154) to Heinrich Plantagenet, Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou , who shortly after became King of England as Henry II . Subsequently, both France and England regarded Aquitaine as their rightful possession; the conflict between the two countries, which flared up in the 12th century, finally ended in the Hundred Years War (1337-1453).

In the 16th century, first Francis I and then his son Heinrich II tried to introduce a salt tax ( gabelle ), whereupon there were revolts in the region, which had already broken away from France after many Catholics had converted to Protestantism ( Jacquerie des Pitauds ), but were crushed by a French army led by Anne de Montmorency . Later, the people's displeasure with the French central power shifted to the religious level and culminated in the Huguenot Wars (1562–1598). According to a census from 1682, two-thirds of the families adhered to the Protestant faith preached by John Calvin in Angoulême in the 1530s and spread by his disciples in the south and south-west of France. The Edict of Fontainebleau (1685), with which the relative religious freedom enshrined in the Edict of Nantes (1598) and the Peace of Alès (1629) was finally abolished, prompted many Protestants to emigrate. Most, however, stayed in the country and practiced their faith in secret ( Église du Desert ). During this time, many residents of Meschers turned to piracy at times . With Marshal and Governor Jean Charles de Saint-Nectaire , who was comparatively tolerant of religious issues, the situation improved for Protestants in the region around the middle of the 18th century.

The years of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars had little effect in southwest France. In the second half of the 19th century, bathing tourism began and an economic upturn began to develop gradually, the success of which was again undone by the effects of the First and Second World Wars .

Attractions

Saint-Saturnin Church

Interior of the Saint-Saturnin church

Grottes de Régulus

It is possible that there was a church in Miscaria as early as the 9th century , when the place was given to the Saint-Seurin church in Bordeaux by Louis the Pious . However, the church was rebuilt in the 12th century and remodeled a century later by monks from Saint-Jean-d'Angély , which is documented; however, this church probably fell victim to the turmoil and destruction of the Hundred Years' War. Of the new building completed around 1480, only the tower remains, which at first glance appears massive and thus Romanesque ; On closer inspection, however, one discovers Gothic tracery and three passes in the arches. This new church was destroyed again - perhaps already in the religious conflicts of the late 16th century, or during an attack by Spanish pirates in 1620. The troops of Louis XIII who invaded the region shortly thereafter . would be considered as destroyers. In the 17th century the three-portal, but inside only single-nave church was built, which is covered with a wide-span stucco vault on a wooden substructure. The church building (actually only the bell tower) has been recognized as a monument historique since 1925 .

The Protestant temple with its unadorned architecture was built in the neoclassical style in 1842 .

The caves ( Grottes de Régulus and Grottes de Matata ) that were driven into the cliffs ( falaises ) by Meschers were used as fishermen's huts, as granaries, as hiding places for Protestants or, in the 19th century, as simple pubs.

Meschers has several beaches: Plage des Nonnes and Plage de Suzac are the most beautiful; there are also the Plage de Vergnes and the Plage de l'Arnèche .

Plague of the nuns
Plague of the nuns
Plage de Suzac

literature

Le Patrimoine des Communes de la Charente-Maritime. Flohic Editions, Volume 1, Paris 2002, ISBN 2-84234-129-5 , pp. 230-232.

Web links

Commons : Meschers-sur-Gironde - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Clocher de l'Église Saint-Saturnin, Meschers-sur-Gironde in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)

[1] Clocher de l'Église Saint-Saturnin, Meschers-sur-Gironde in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)