Pouzols-Minervois

Pouzols-Minervois ; Posòls de Menerbés
region	Occitania
Department	Aude
Arrondissement	Narbonne
Canton	Le Sud-Minervois
Community association	Le Grand Narbonne
Coordinates	43 ° 17 ′ N , 2 ° 50 ′ E Coordinates: 43 ° 17 ′ N , 2 ° 50 ′ E
height	39-294 m
surface	10.15 km 2
Residents	547 (January 1, 2017)
Population density	54 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code	11120
INSEE code	11296
Website	mairie-pouzols-minervois.fr
	; Pouzols-Minervois - Quarry stone house

Pouzols-Minervois ( Occitan : Posòls de Menerbés ) is a southern French municipality with 547 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the east of the Aude department in the Occitanie region .

location

The circular village ( Circulade ) Pouzols-Minervois is located on a hill at an altitude of about 60 meters above sea level. d. M. about 21 kilometers (driving distance) northwest of Narbonne or about 35 kilometers west of Béziers in the southeast of the old cultural landscape of the Minervois .

Pouzols-Minervois - town view

history

A settlement must have existed in the vicinity as early as Roman and / or Gallo-Roman times, as traces of a small amphitheater were discovered; the area was known for the good quality of the wine and olives produced here. In the 9th century a monastery was built, the monks of which built a water pipe about 500 meters long. The exact location of the monastery is not yet known. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the residents of the place moved and settled on the flank of a small hill, the top of which was crowned by a castle ( château ). However, this was razed by the soldiers of Simon de Montfort at the beginning of the Albigensian Crusade (1210) . The manorial rule ( seigneurie ) over the place then passed into the hands of the Abbey of Fontfroide ; From 1226, the entire region was under the Sénéchaussée of Carcassonne . Place names such as Pitteolis , Podols or Pozolis , which point to a small fountain ( puits ), have been handed down from medieval times . It was not until 1781 that the place name was officially 'Pouzols'.

Population development

year	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2006	2016
Residents	380	321	367	338	329	357	525

In the 19th century, the place usually had between 400 and 650 inhabitants, and despite the phylloxera crisis in viticulture, a steady population growth was noted until the 1930s. As a result of the increasing mechanization of agriculture , the number of inhabitants has since fallen to the lows of the last decades.

economy

In earlier times, the residents of the village lived largely on self-sufficiency from agriculture, with both grain and wine being grown. In addition, they ran a little cattle (pigs, chickens, etc.). As in many places in Languedoc , viticulture has dominated since the 19th century; the local winegrowers' cooperative markets wine produced here through the appellations of Aude , Languedoc , Pays Cathare , Minervois and Pays d'Oc . Grain ( wheat , maize ) and sunflowers are sown on around half of the agricultural land . Tourism in the form of the rental of holiday homes ( gîtes ) has also played an important role in the income of the population and the community since the 1960s.

Attractions

The old town center belongs to the type of Circulades - round villages that were built around a core consisting of a castle and / or church for defense reasons and whose outer house front served as a replacement for an expensive city wall. However, no traces of the former castle and a possibly neighboring castle chapel have been preserved.

Saint-Saturnin Church

The parish church ( Église Saint-Saturnin ) located outside the center of the village by the cemetery is a 12th century building with changes from later times. The church, built of halfway precisely hewn stones, has an apse with a structure of pilaster strips and blind arcades in the Lombard style ; the apse windows and the arches of the blind arcades are covered with narrow strips of black basalt rock . The biforic windows of the bell tower , which become larger towards the top, also show features of this style; the lower twin windows have the same basalt stone bands as the apse windows. The upper story of the bell tower is likely a 14th century addition; it ends with a parapet wall and a crenellated crown . The main portal is on the south side directly next to the tower; on the north side there is another small church gate. The single-nave interior of the church is barrel-vaulted and arched ; in the later added chapels on the south side there are late Gothic rib vaults . The furnishings, largely dating from the 18th century, include the altar , the choir screen and a baptismal font ; these are made of the reddish marble from Caunes-Minervois . The church was recognized as a monument historique in 1961 .

Web links

Commons : Pouzols-Minervois - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Église Saint-Saturnin, Pouzols-Minervois in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)

[1] Église Saint-Saturnin, Pouzols-Minervois in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)