Pougny (Ain)
| Pougny | ||
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| region | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | |
| Department | Ain | |
| Arrondissement | Gex | |
| Canton | Thoiry | |
| Community association | Pays de Gex | |
| Coordinates | 46 ° 8 ' N , 5 ° 57' E | |
| height | 326-463 m | |
| surface | 7.77 km 2 | |
| Residents | 812 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 105 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 01550 | |
| INSEE code | 01308 | |
Pougny is a French commune in the Ain department in the region of Auvergne Rhône-Alpes .
geography
Pougny is 410 m above sea level. M., about 17 kilometers west-southwest of the city of Geneva (as the crow flies). The former farming village extends in the southwest of the Pays de Gex in a promising elevated position on a promontory above the wide valley of the Rhone , east of the Jura , in the Geneva basin near the state border with Switzerland .
The area of the 7.77 square kilometers large municipal area covers a section of the Pays de Gex. The eastern and southern border runs along the Rhône, which flows here in a wide valley and is dammed up below Pougny to form a long flat lake with alluvial islands. The tertiary molasse basin of Geneva was shaped by the ice age Rhone glacier . During the post-ice age, the Rhone cut its way into the deposits due to erosion work, which is why the valley is accompanied by slopes around 60 meters high. The community area extends from the river to the adjacent plateaus. The Annaz brook , which flows into the Rhône at Pougny, has also created a deep valley. In the forest area Bois Plan is at 461 m above sea level. M. reached the highest point of Pougny. The municipality is part of the Upper Jura Regional Nature Park (French: Parc naturel régional du Haut-Jura ).
In addition to the original place, Pougny also includes various hamlets and farms, including:
- Pougny Gare ( 352 m ) in the Rhône Valley near the mouth of the Annaz
- Le Crêt ( 412 m ) on the plateau between the Rhône valley and the Annaz
- L'Etournel ( 365 m ) on a ledge above the Rhône valley
Neighboring communities of Pougny are Vulbens in the south, Collonges and Farges in the west, Péron and Challex in the north and the Swiss community Chancy in the south.
history
Pougny is first mentioned in a document in 1277 under the name Castrum de Pounye . Over time, the spelling changed via Pounie (1289), Pugnye (1304), Pougnie (1365), Pougnier (1397) and Pougnies (1554) to the current name Pougny, which has been documented since 1734. The place name goes back to the Gallo-Roman gender name Punius and means something like estate of Punius (Pugniacum).
In the 14th century the village came under the sovereignty of the Counts of Savoy . Then Pougny shared the checkered history of the Pays de Gex , with which it finally came to France after the conclusion of the Treaty of Lyon in 1601.
Attractions
The parish church of Saint-Louis originally goes back to a Gothic building, but was largely rebuilt in the 18th century and redesigned in the 19th century.
population
| year | Residents |
|---|---|
| 1962 | 378 |
| 1968 | 424 |
| 1975 | 543 |
| 1982 | 543 |
| 1990 | 600 |
| 1999 | 629 |
| 2007 | 747 |
| 2016 | 815 |
With 812 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017), Pougny is one of the small communities in the Ain department. Since the mid-1960s, the population has grown steadily, but this is significantly less than in most of the other municipalities of the Pays de Gex.
Economy and Infrastructure
Until well into the 20th century, Pougny was a predominantly agricultural village. Today there are some local small businesses. In the meantime, the border village has also turned into a residential community. Many workers are commuters who work in the larger towns of the Pays de Gex or as cross-border commuters in the agglomeration of Geneva.
The village is very well developed in terms of traffic. It is located on a departmental road that leads from Collonges via Chancy to Geneva. There are other road connections with Challex and Péron. Pougny has a train station on the Lyon – Genève railway line .
The Chancy-Pougny run-of-river power plant, built in 1924, is not located on the municipality, but 600 m above the Rhone between the municipalities of Chancy and Challex.
