Montbron

Montbron
region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department	Charente
Arrondissement	Angoulême
Canton	Val de Tardoire
Community association	La Rochefoucauld-Porte du Périgord
Coordinates	45 ° 40 ′ N , 0 ° 30 ′ E Coordinates: 45 ° 40 ′ N , 0 ° 30 ′ E
height	95-287 m
surface	43.34 km 2
Residents	2,028 (January 1, 2017)
Population density	47 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code	16220
INSEE code	16223
Website	www.montbron.fr
	; Montbron Town Hall

Montbron is a French commune with 2,028 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in the Charente in the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine . It belongs to the Arrondissement of Angoulême and the canton of Val de Tardoire . The responsible community association is the Communauté de communes La Rochefoucauld-Porte du Périgord . The inhabitants are called Montbronnais or Montbronnaises .

etymology

Montbron was Latinized between 1030 and 1044 as Monte Berulfo , in 1168 as Monte Berulfi and in the 13th century as Monte Berulphi . On the Carte de Cassini , the small town was named Mont Beron in the 18th century . The origin of these names is likely to go back to the Latin mons (mountain, hill) and a Frankish or Germanic personal name Berulf .

geography

Montbron is located around 27 kilometers east of Angoulême - 3 kilometers northwest of the Dordogne department and 11 kilometers southwest of the Haute-Vienne department . It is 12 kilometers to the canton town of La Rochefoucauld in the northwest, 20 kilometers to Nontron in the southeast, 41 kilometers to Confolens in the northeast, 56 kilometers to Périgueux in the southeast and 62 kilometers to Limoges in the northeast (all information as the crow flies).

Important transport links are the D 699 from Angoulême to Limoges via Montbron and Saint-Mathieu , the D 16 from Confolens to Montmoreau-Saint-Cybard via La Péruse , Montbron, Marthon and Villebois-Lavalette and the D 6 from Mansle to Piégut-Pluviers via La Rochefoucauld and Montbron (the D 6 is designated as D 91 in the Dordogne department).

The place is located on the western foothills of the Limousin and the Massif Central on the edge of the Périgord-Limousin Regional Nature Park . The highest point of the municipality at 287 meters above sea level is located along the D 16 on the southern roof of the Massif de l'Arbre (municipality border with Mazerolles and Rouzède ). The lowest point at 95 meters is on the Tardoire on the western border.

Montbron is a municipality on the border with the Dordogne department and is surrounded by the following municipalities:

Mazerolles in the north
Rouzède in the northeast
Écuras in the east
Eymouthiers and Varaignes (Dordogne) to the southeast
Feuillade in the south
Marthon in the southwest
Vouthon and Saint-Sornin to the west
Orgedeuil in the northwest.

Montbron is a very large municipality with 43.34 square kilometers and has numerous scattered hamlets, individual farms and castles: Baschaloup , Bois Bénit , Boucu , Brugéras , Châtenet , Château de Chabrot , Château de Ferrières , Château Marendat , Château Menet , Château Montgaudier , Chez Boisse , Chez Boudoire , Chez Bournet , Chez Briquet , Chez Bruchet , Chez Clergeau , Chez Joubert , Chez l'Houmy , Chez Linlaud , Chez Maridou , Chez Marvaud , Chez Pellet , Chez Persavaud , Chez Rousseau , Chez Rouys , Chez Valette , Chez Vincent , Courrièras , Courtillas , Ferdinas , Grignol , Gros Martial , Jammet de Rivaud , L'Abeille , Labiment , La Boulogne , Labrousse , La Chabée , La Côte , La Croix , La Forge , La Grande Pouge , La Pouge , Lavaud , La Vue , Le Bourny , Le Fraisse , Le Gros Chêne , Le Jarissou , Le Maine Gontier , Le Maury , Le Ménieux , Le Mûrier , Léonat , Le Panisson , Le Pinier , Les Borderies , Les Bouquets , Les Brouex , Les Brousses , Les Chaillauds , Les Chaises , Les Coreix , Les Coudraudes , Les Montis , Les Nougeroux , Les Petits Bos , Les Quériats , Neuville , Nouveaux , Puybon , Puydou , Sainte-Catherine and Vergnas .

Hydrography

The Tardoire flows around Montbron from east to west in rather large meander loops - a tributary of the Charente through the Bonnieure . The Tardoire emerges from the crystalline rock zone northeast of Montbron , then touches the Ville basse - as the lower town of Montbron located in the valley is called - and then flows northwest towards La Rochefoucauld. The Tardoire receives two right tributaries in the municipality - La Renaudie and La Touille - both of which flow down from the Massif de l'Arbre to the south-south-west.

climate

As in the south and west of the Charente, the climate in Montbron is an oceanic maritime climate of aquitaine character.

geology

The municipality of Montbron lies in the transition area between the crystalline basement of the northwestern Massif Central and the transgressing Jurassic sediments of the northeast Aquitaine basin . The crystalline , which goes back to the Variscan orogeny , appears in two units - rocks of the Saint-Mathieu-Dom and the significantly less metamorphic Mazerolles slate . The flat Jurassic sediments consist of the Lower Jurassic and Central Jurassic . Above this, continental tertiary and quaternary loose sediments from the slopes and valleys are transported out of the Massif Central .

The basement rocks are clearly dominated by the Saint-Mathieu leuco granite , which occurs here in its tectonically sheared facies ( Roussines granite ) and its medium-grain facies ( Champniers-Reilhac granite ). The Roussines granite mainly follows the valley of La Renaudie in a north-easterly strike direction. The Champniers-Reilhac granite is exposed on both sides along the Tardoire. Upstream, migmatitic gneiss (metatexite) can be seen directly on the eastern municipal boundary . The Mazerolles slates are in the north of the municipality in the tributaries of the La Touille .

The Lower Jurassic ( Hettangian , Pliensbachian and Toarcian ) transgresses onto the basement . The hettangium, which can be up to 20 meters thick, is made up of arcs , reddish cryptocrystalline dolomites and oolite limestone . The sinemurium is probably missing. Pliensbachium and Toarcium are about 10 meters thick and consist of gray clay stones and marls . Upcoming is the Lower Jurassic along the left side of the valley of the Tardoire northeast and east of Montbron, on the right side of the valley of La Renaudie and on both sides of the La Touille and its two upper reaches.

The city of Montbron is built on the Middle Jurassic (recrystallized Middle Bajocium ). In the Middle Bajocian Upper Bajocian follow Unterbathon and Oberbathon. The Central Jurassic with a total thickness of a good 70 meters consists essentially of granular limestone . It covers practically the entire southern part of the municipality and girds the slopes of the La Touille valley in its recrystallized facies .

The Jurassic sediments in turn are covered by tertiary colluvium - continental plateau sediments consisting of a sandy-clay matrix with embedded pebbles made of predominantly pure quartz . In the south of the municipality there is also a Pleistocene colluvium on slopes . Above the colluvium lie the deposits of a fossil tertiary river , which, coming from Eymouthiers, follows the high elevations of the community in the south. Its age is not dated, but the period Eocene to Pliocene or Miocene to Pliocene is assumed . The Tardoire flows in a Holocene alluvium - predominantly sandy clays with gravel pebbles from the basement. On its right side of the valley, the river has left a lower Pleistocene high terrace and a middle Pleistocene central terrace on the western boundary of the municipality.

environment

The forests of the karst soils consist mainly of oak and chestnut .

The nature reserve Réserve naturelle régionale de la Vallée de la Renaudie (Valley of La Renaudie ) belongs partly to the municipality of Montbron.

Long-distance hiking trails

The following long-distance hiking trails cross the municipality of Montbron:

the GR 4 from Royan to Grasse and
the GR de Pays Entre Angoumois et Périgord , which connects the Angoumois with the Périgord .

history

Early history

The region around Montbron was inhabited in prehistoric times, as archaeological finds (today in the Musée de l'Homme in Paris) prove. Artifacts come mainly from the two caves Grotte de Fontéchevade and Grotte de Montgaudier . Fontéchevade goes back around 150,000 years to the Tayacien , while Montgaudier is a little younger and runs Moustérien . The remains of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals were discovered in both caves . Traces of the Neolithic and the Bell Beaker Culture are known from Montgaudier. Fontéchevade was used as a collective burial site in the Bronze Age and also contains some artifacts from the La Tène period (La Tène III).

Antiquity

There was probably an oppidum in Montbron during Roman times . A Roman villa urbana was discovered on the plateau between Courtillas and Lavaud . Mosaic remains of this can now be seen in the Musée de la Société archéologique et historique de la Charente in Angoulême.

middle Ages

In the early Middle Ages, Clovis I incorporated the region into the Frankish Empire . His grandson Chilperich I sent the knight Berulphus in 567 to pacify the Angoumois region . He built a heavily guarded wooden fortress on a hill above the Tardoire and named it Mons Berulphus . This became Montberoulf, then Montberon and finally Montbron.

In the 9th century, the land belongs to the Saint Cybard Monastery. in the 10th century it became the headquarters of the Counts of Montbron.

In the Middle Ages, Montbron was on a Camino de Santiago . At that time Montbron belonged to the Counts of Lusignan , later the Counts of Montmorency took over the rule. In the 17th century Monbron fell to Henri-Auguste de Loménie , Foreign Minister under Louis XIV. After that, the land belonged to the Seneschal Étienne de Chérade. His son Alexandre-Etienne Chérade fled to Spain during the revolution . His property became the property of the French Republic.

Population development

Population development in Montbron
year	Residents
1962	2469
1968	2383
1975	2541
1982	2604
1990	2422
1999	2241
2005	2193
2010	2158
2015	2060
2016	2043
2017	2028

Source: INSEE

The population in Montbron reached its last peak in 1982 (the absolute peak had been reached in 1886) and then declined more or less constantly until 2017.

mayor

Acting mayor of Montbron has been the farmer Gwenhaël François since 2004, who originally belonged to the PS , but then switched to LREM .

Attractions

The Romanesque church of Saint-Maurice dates from the 12th century. It was renovated in the 19th century and classified as a monument in 1862.

Marguerite de Rohan , Countess of Angoulême built Montbron Castle probably around 1480, shortly after the Hundred Years War . The castle, built from stones from the old fortress within the city walls, has been a monument since 1985. The polygonal tower is unusual.