Monpazier
Monpazier | ||
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region | Nouvelle-Aquitaine | |
Department | Dordogne | |
Arrondissement | Bergerac | |
Canton | Lalinde | |
Community association | Bastides Dordogne-Périgord | |
Coordinates | 44 ° 41 ′ N , 0 ° 54 ′ E | |
height | 144–222 m | |
surface | 0.53 km 2 | |
Residents | 473 (January 1, 2017) | |
Population density | 892 inhabitants / km 2 | |
Post Code | 24540 | |
INSEE code | 24280 | |
![]() Monpazier, flower market on the Place des Arcades |
Monpazier is a municipality with 473 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in France in Dordogne , in the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine . The association Les plus beaux villages de France declared Monpazier one of the most beautiful villages in France .
geography
The municipality is located in the south of the Périgord , about 45 km from Bergerac . Monpazier is crossed by the Dropt River , a right tributary of the Garonne .
history
Monpazier was originally an English bastide , founded in 1284 by Jean de Grailly, general of the English king. Edward I thus extended the English defense line from Lalinde via Beaumont-du-Périgord further south. The Royal Charter granted to the city was associated with numerous advantages for the residents, for example tax exemption and the abolition of statehood.
During the Hundred Years' War Monpazier was fiercely fought over and over and was taken several times by the British and French. During the Reformation, which the inhabitants fiercely opposed, the Huguenots under Geoffroy de Vivans were able to temporarily occupy the city in 1574. At the end of the 16th century, Monpazier was finally one of the main scenes of the great peasant uprising in the Périgord , which lasted for decades . One of the main leaders, the weaver Buffarot, was captured by the Duke of Épernon in 1637 and executed in the central square of Monpazier.
Population development
year | 1962 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2006 | 2016 |
Residents | 664 | 656 | 558 | 533 | 531 | 516 | 533 | 478 |
Sources: Cassini and INSEE |
Cityscape
As usual with all bastides, Monpazier was laid out over a rectangle with streets running at strict right angles around a central square. The original cityscape has changed little over the centuries. The houses around the square are connected to one another by similar basement floors with arcades that open onto the square. The buildings from the Middle Ages , the Renaissance and the Baroque thus form an arcade leading around the square .
In the square there is a fountain and the market hall made of chestnut logs from the 16th century. As usual with the bastides, the church is very close, at the northeast corner of the square. It dates back to the time the city was founded, but has been damaged several times and renewed or rebuilt several times.
literature
- Thorsten Droste : Périgord and the Atlantic coast. Art and nature in the Dordogne valley and on the Côte d'Argent from Bordeaux to Biarritz (= DuMont documents. DuMont art travel guide ). 10th edition. DuMont, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-7701-1197-4 , p. 119.