Ribérac

Ribérac
region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department	Dordogne
Arrondissement	Périgueux
Canton	Ribérac (main town)
Community association	Pays Ribéracois
Coordinates	45 ° 15 ′ N , 0 ° 20 ′ E Coordinates: 45 ° 15 ′ N , 0 ° 20 ′ E
height	54–155 m
surface	22.79 km 2
Residents	3,861 (January 1, 2017)
Population density	169 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code	24600
INSEE code	24352
Website	Ribérac
	; Ribérac - Town Hall (mairie)

Ribérac ( Occitan : Rabairac ) is a small town and a municipality with 3,861 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Dordogne department in the French region of Aquitaine . The community consists of the main town as well as some hamlets (hameaux) and individual farms (fermes) .

geography

Location and climate

The place Ribérac is about 1 km south of the Dronne in the old cultural landscape of the Périgord at an altitude of about 70 m . The city of Périgueux is about 38 km (driving distance) to the east. The climate is temperate; Rain (approx. 875 mm / year) falls over the year.

geology

Ribérac is built on flat layers of chalk of campanium (Campanium 3). The Dronne lowland consists of Holocene alluvium (clays and sands), which is then accompanied to the south by a worm-age low terrace (sands and gravel).

Population development

year	1800	1851	1901	1954	1999	2015
Residents	2,985	2,942	3,622	3.812	4,000	3,932

The sustained population growth of the small town is to a large extent due to immigration from the rural areas in the area as a result of the increasing mechanization of agriculture and the abandonment of small farms.

economy

Although many of the town's residents lived for a long time from the produce of their fields and gardens, Ribérac had market rights since the end of the Middle Ages. Small traders, craftsmen and service providers of all kinds have settled in the village. Today the small town has various health and educational facilities. A slaughterhouse was built in the outskirts .

history

In the year 848 the Normans threatened to attack the abbey of Brantôme , about 30 km northeast ; For this reason, the bank of the Dronne was fortified at the not yet existing Ribérac. Around the year 1000 a castle (château) was built on the present site; the place gradually developed at their feet. The Romanesque churches of Notre-Dame, Saint-Martial and Saint-Pierre de Faye date from the 12th century . After the Huguenot Wars (1562–1598) the castle fell into disrepair and remained uninhabited from then on; their remains were removed in the 19th century.

In 1790 Ribérac became the administrative seat of the district of the same name. The formerly independent municipality of Faye merged with Ribérac in 1793. Between 1790 and 1794 Saint-Martial-de-Dronne was also incorporated. From 1800 Ribérac became one of the three sub-prefectures in the Dordogne department, but this status was lost again in 1926. In 1851 part of the municipality was separated and added to the newly created municipality of Saint-Martin-de-Ribérac.

Attractions

There are numerous listed buildings in the municipality of Ribérac:

Église Saint-Martial

The Église Notre-Dame originally only had a single nave and dates from the 12th century and was the former castle chapel ; in 1500 it was converted into a collegiate church and received two aisles . 200 years later it was subordinated to the Saint-Martial church . The building was recognized as a Monument historique in 1975 and has served as an exhibition building since the 1980s.

Also from the 12th century comes the St. Saint-Martial single-nave Romanesque church , consecrated to Martial of Limoges ; however, it was later increased for defensive purposes and the windows were made smaller. The extremely unadorned and defensive-looking building was classified as a monument historique in 2000 .

The Église Notre-Dame de la Paix , built in 1933/34 in the neo-Romanesque style of south-west France, has also been classified as a Monument historique since 2000 .

The two-storey Palais de Justice was built around 1840 and was recognized as a Monument historique in 2000 .

The same applies to the ancien théâtre .

Surroundings

Romanesque church of Saint-Pierre de Faye

In the hamlet of Faye , a good 1 km to the west, the single-nave Romanesque Église Saint-Pierre de Faye was built in the 12th century . It was also later increased and given a fortified chamber above the now flat-roofed nave. Worth seeing is the west portal with its pink ribbon decorated archivolts and figuratively decorated tympanum . The church building has been recognized as a monument historique since 1946 .
The Manoir de la Beauvière , located approx. 2 km east of the village , may have been built in the 14th century; newer and larger windows were built in during the Renaissance . It is privately owned and still has a separate pigeon tower . It has also been classified as a Monument historique since 2000