Niort-de-Sault
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Niort-de-Sault Niort de Saut |
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| region | Occitania | |
| Department | Aude | |
| Arrondissement | Limoux | |
| Canton | La Haute-Vallée de l'Aude | |
| Community association | Pyrénées Audoises | |
| Coordinates | 42 ° 48 ' N , 2 ° 0' E | |
| height | 771-1,974 m | |
| surface | 22.11 km 2 | |
| Residents | 32 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 1 inhabitant / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 11140 | |
| INSEE code | 11265 | |
 View from the castle ruins of Niort over the town |
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Niort-de-Sault ( Occitan : Niòrt de Saut ) is a French commune with 32 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Aude department in the Occitanie region . The place was called Aniort in the Middle Ages .
location
Niort-de-Sault is a remote mountain village and is located about 81 kilometers (driving distance) southwest of Carcassonne and about 56 kilometers southwest of Limoux in the valley of the Rebenty River . The canton capital Belcaire is about 10 kilometers to the west.
Population development
| year | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2006 | 2016 |
| Residents | 111 | 68 | 60 | 53 | 35 | 33 | 27 |
In 1830 the place still had 584 inhabitants.
economy
The place is still characterized by forestry. Livestock farming (sheep breeding) is hardly practiced anymore. Towards the end of the 20th century, tourism was added as an economic factor, but the gradual extinction of the remote community seems to continue unstoppably.
history
The Vice-County of Sault was created in 1013; the vicomte called himself at the same time - after the place where his ancestral castle stood - Baron de Niort . Niort joined the Crown of Aragon as early as 1060, but remained largely independent.
Blanche de Laurac introduced the Cathar faith through the marriage of her daughter Esclarmonde to Guillaume de Niort . While Guillaume was largely alien or hostile to the new faith, his children - especially Bernard-Othon de Niort raised accordingly by their mother - were devout, if not fanatical Cathars.
Niort was so far apart that it was spared attacks and destruction in the Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229) - on the contrary, it was Bernard-Othon who kept looking for an argument. Louis IX However, the final suppression of the Cathar movement, which flared up again and again and caused unrest, and so Géraud de Niort, Bernard-Othon's brother, handed over all family property to the French king in an act of submission in 1240.
But the disputes between Niort and the French crown did not end until in 1255 - eleven years after the fall of Montségur - the town's castle was conquered and the Cathars' very last refuge was excavated. A few years later, Ludwig IX ordered. the razing and destruction of all castles in the Pays de Sault , only Niort - because of its strategically important proximity to Aragon - was excluded from the order. The end of Niort Castle came in 1573 when a Protestant crowd laid the long-abandoned castle in ruins.
Attractions
Castle complex
Others
- The new castle ( Château neuf de Niort ), built in the 17th century, could almost be mistaken for a church from a distance because of its two towers - one angular, the other round; but up close you can see the many windows. It is owned by the city and temporarily served as a dormitory.
- The Église de la Nativité Notre-Dame was built in the 19th century and has served as the parish church of the small community ever since.
Personalities
- Bernard-Othon de Niort (* around 1201, † around 1245?), Cathar, knight and Faydit
