Roche-Saint-Secret-Béconne

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Roche-Saint-Secret-Béconne
Roche-Saint-Secret-Béconne (France)
Roche-Saint-Secret-Béconne
region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Department Drôme
Arrondissement Nyons
Canton Dieulefit
Community association Dieulefit-Bourdeaux
Coordinates 44 ° 29 ′  N , 5 ° 2 ′  E Coordinates: 44 ° 29 ′  N , 5 ° 2 ′  E
height 282-1,232 m
surface 33.23 km 2
Residents 452 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 14 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 26770
INSEE code 26276

Chateau d'Alançon near Roche-Saint-Secret-Béconne

Roche-Saint-Secret-Béconne is a southern French municipality in the Drôme department ( Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region ) with 452 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017). This southern part of the department bears the "Drôme provençale" tourist label due to its location in the border area between the Dauphiné and Provence .

location

The place is on the banks of the river Lez at an altitude of 362  m in the southern foothills of the Alps at the foot of the "Montagne de la Lance" ( 1338  m ). The distance to the northwestern city of Montélimar is 40 km (driving distance); the wine-growing region around Grignan is only about 15 km to the south-west.

etymology

The original place name La Roche-Saint-Secret was derived on the one hand from the peculiar rock formation "Rocher-des-Aures", on the other hand from the Saint-Secret chapel, which stands in the valley of the former village of "La Roche" not far from the castle of the same name. When the now abandoned village of Béconne was annexed to La Roche-Saint-Secret as part of the merger of the municipalities carried out in 1973 , the place took on the name Roche-Saint-Secret-Béconne.

year 1800 1851 1901 1954 1999 2017
Residents 403 558 402 244 371 452

The population decline in the first half of the 20th century is mainly due to the remote location of the place and the loss of jobs as a result of the phylloxera crisis in viticulture and the mechanization of agriculture .

economy

Lavender field
Wine and lavender fields

The main sources of income for the place and the region are agriculture and animal husbandry , especially cattle breeding . There is a long tradition of growing wine and lavender ; the fruit plantations mainly supply apricots , but truffle deposits and beekeeping are also of economic interest. The winemakers have the right to market the wines produced in the municipality under the appellations Drôme , Comtés Rhodaniens , Méditerranée and Grignan-les-Adhémar . Since the second half of the 20th century, tourism has been generating additional income in the form of renting holiday apartments ( gîtes ).

history

The archaeological sites near the “Rocher des Aures” grottoes testify to settlement in the Bronze Age . Furthermore, the remains of a Gallo-Roman settlement were uncovered. In the 13th century there were four villages in today's municipal area, which were owned by different lords:

  • La Roche , in a valley slightly out of the way and above today's town center, was named "Castrum Roche Sancti Segre" in 1252, "Rochesinsecret" in 1339, later "Roche-Saint-Secret" and was a fief of the von Montauban family .
  • Béconne , north of the center on the left bank of the Lez, was founded and fortified in the 13th century and mentioned in 1253 as "Villa Béconna", a name derived from the Gaulish "becco", French "bec" (beak) and to designate a hill between two rivers. It was a fiefdom of the Lords of Vesc - Comps .
  • Alençon , opposite Béconne on the right bank of the Lez, was a fiefdom of the lords of Mévouillon - Montauban . ;
  • Blacon , south of the town center, owned by the Lords of Poitiers - Valentinois .

Blacon was abandoned by the Poitiers-Valentinois at the beginning of the 14th century, probably due to its inaccessible location. In the 17th century it was owned by Hector d'Armond de Forez, Lord of Mirabel and Blacons. He sold it on June 18, 1642, but continued to use the name Blacons and transferred it to his estate "Le Devès" in the parish of Mirabel (today Mirabel-et-Blacons ), which he had acquired from the bishop of Die .

Alençon took in the course of the Huguenot Wars (1562-1570), contrary to La Roche and Béconne position for the Protestants .

Over time, the old village of La Roche lost its inhabitants, who settled further down in what is now Roche-Saint-Secret.

The villages of Alençon and Béconne were completely abandoned in the first decades of the 20th century. The massive rural exodus finally gave rise to the merging of the municipalities of La Roche Saint-Secret and Béconne.

Attractions

In the former village of La Roche :

  • the "Château de la Roche" fortified with towers and loopholes (private property)
  • the Romanesque chapel of St. Secret (12th century), in the cemetery not far from the castle. As a result of several landslides, the ground of the cemetery rose so that the floor of the chapel is now 1.20 meters lower than the surrounding area. For this reason, the chapel was rebuilt several times and received a new portal in the 17th century. The massive walls of both the short nave and the vaulted choir have loopholes-like openings.
  • the chapel Ste. Madeleine, which was integrated into a private house in the center of the village (private property).

In the village of Béconne, abandoned since 1927 :

  • the old fortifications with walls, gates, towers
  • the castle ruins (12th / 13th century)
  • the old houses
  • the Notre-Dame-de-Béconne chapel (14th century, restored in 1921) just outside the village, not far from the cemetery and in the middle of the fields. The church, also called Notre-Dame-de-l'Annonciation or Notre-Dame-des Fistules (Our Lady of Fistulas), because according to oral tradition, miraculous healings took place here, is the destination of an annual pilgrimage on Whit Monday. It served as a parish church until 1800.
Tour d'Alençon

In the also abandoned village of Alençon :

  • the huge angular defense tower donjon Tour d'Alençon (12th century) with Romanesque double-arched window, surrounded by the remains of a defensive wall from the 14th century ( Monument historique since 1992)
  • the Château d'Alençon , formerly a fortified estate (15th century), which was transformed into a Renaissance-style castle by the Boulogne family, then lords of Alençon (private property).

On a hill in the south of La Roche:

Web links

Commons : Roche-Saint-Secret-Béconne  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roche-Saint-Secret-Béconne - Viticulture
  2. ↑ Tour d'Alençon, Roche-Saint-Secret-Béconne in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)