Roquemaure (Gard)
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Roquemaure Ròcamaura |
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| region | Occitania | |
| Department | Gard | |
| Arrondissement | Nîmes | |
| Canton | Roquemaure | |
| Community association | Grand Avignon | |
| Coordinates | 44 ° 3 ' N , 4 ° 47' E | |
| height | 20-176 m | |
| surface | 26.22 km 2 | |
| Residents | 5,481 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 209 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 30150 | |
| INSEE code | 30221 | |
| Website | mairie-roquemaure.fr | |
 Aerial view |
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Roquemaure is a French commune with 5481 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Gard department of the Occitanie region .
geography
Roquemaure is located on the right bank of the Rhône . The river also forms the border between the Gard department and the Vaucluse department . The closest cities are Orange, ten kilometers away, and Avignon, twelve kilometers away . The municipality is part of the Côtes du Rhône wine-growing region . The name comes from the time when the river formed the border with the Holy Roman Empire . Only the right bank of the river belonged to France and was therefore called La Côte du Rhône (bank of the Rhône). The municipality is crossed by the A9 .
The municipality borders in the north on Saint-Geniès-de-Comolas and Montfaucon , in the north-east on Cabrières-d'Avignon , in the east on Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Sorgues , in the south-east on Sauveterre , in the south on Pujaut , in the south-west on Tavel , to the west with Lirac and to the north-west with Saint-Laurent-des-Arbres .
history
Surname
Until the 12th century the place appeared under the name Rocca Maura , from the 13th century it was called Ruppes maura . Roquemaure has had its current name since the 16th century. The Count of Toulouse first mentioned the place in 1096. The part of the name Roque or Rocca (rock) apparently goes back to a castle that was on a rock. It probably served in the 8th and 9th centuries to ward off the invading Sarrazenes .
In addition, a family bore the name of the place. The family, which had the name as early as the 12th century, was close to the Count of Toulouse. It is unclear whether there is a connection to the village of the same name Roquemaure in the Tarn department .
The battle of the castle of Roquemaure
The battle, which took place in 1590, was described in an 1810 document. This version was taken up by Placide Cappeau in his work Le Château de Roquemaure (The Castle of Roquemaure) in 1876 . The battle is an event during the Huguenot Wars . The castle was a base of the Catholics, who turned against the Protestant King Henry IV . The Protestant Seneschal of Beaucaire carried out the attack. The battle lasted from August 22nd to November 30th, 1590. The battle started the ruin of the castle.
The Côtes du Rhône
At the beginning of the 13th century was viguerie of Uzes divided. The Viguerie Haute (Upper Viguerie) emerged in the Cevennes and the Viguerie Basse (Lower Viguerie), which included the Côtes du Rhône. Since then, the term “Côtes du Rhône” has not only referred to the immediate banks of the Rhône, which the name literally means, but an entire region between Bagnols-sur-Cèze and Villeneuve-lès-Avignon . The region was known for the excellent quality of its wine as early as the 1st century AD. In the 12th century, Roquemaure wine was even praised by Gervasius von Tilbury . A port already existed in Roquemaure at that time, nothing is known about the date of its creation. According to a decree of the Count of Anjou from 1367, no fees were charged there for small goods transports.
Because the sale of local wine was the only source of income in town, those responsible decided to ban the import of foreign wines. When this prohibition was disregarded, there was almost a serious political crisis in 1646. After the vertigo was exposed, the sellers of the strange wine had to leave the village market. Since this incident caused great excitement among the locals, the administrators received a total of 150 locals on October 28, 1646 to calm the situation down. A decree of January 23, 1657 officially confirmed the wine import ban. All the municipalities of the Côte du Rhône then took the same measures.
A harsh winter in 1709 destroyed the vines throughout northern France. This led to a sharp rise in prices and a corresponding increase in production in the south of the country. The port of Roquemaure particularly benefited from this. In 1729 a law formed the basis for individually designed barrels from the Côte du Rhône with a capacity of around 228 liters. In 1731, the opposition to a draft law that provided for the return to uniform barrels was correspondingly fierce. In the same year, a law was passed in France that restricted viticulture and was intended to improve wine quality.
A large part of the wine was transported up the Rhône (towards Lyon ). To do this, the technique of towing was used , with around 20 to 40 horses or oxen pulling around five or six transport boats. The transport took up to 20 days, the way back only took two or three days under favorable conditions. Up to two thousand draft animals were used every day. The wines were in demand nationwide. A certain part took the sea route to the Netherlands via Bordeaux . In 1735 the demand was so great that the local port could no longer handle all deliveries. Therefore, one had to partially switch to the neighboring port of L'Ardoise . Since 1737 the winemakers of the Côte du Rhône have been entitled to label their barrels with the CDR label.
As a result of increased competition and a corresponding increase in prices, many smaller businesses were subsequently forced out of business. Meanwhile, Roquemaure was still strictly adhering to the production rules. The port of Roquemaure has not been in use since 1829. A new port was built around the same time, but it was no longer so easy to use. Timid attempts at renovation were completely destroyed by a great flood of the Rhône in 1840. In 1842 the community asked the prefect to build a small quay, which was supposed to preserve access to the river. For the first time in 1864, the winemakers of the Côtes du Rhône tried to expand their cultivation area, so that many have been added to the original communities of the wine-growing region to this day.
1864 was also the year in which phylloxera first appeared in Pujaut. A year later it first appeared in Roquemaure, and in the following years it destroyed large parts of the French wine-growing regions. So the region became the starting point of a great catastrophe. Historians speculate that this hit the country harder than the effects of the Franco-German War of 1870/1871.
In 1931, an influential winegrowers' association demanded the dissolution of the Côte du Rhône brand because the name was simply a summary of different types of wine. The lawsuit was rejected on the grounds of the name's long tradition. In 1937 the name of the Côte du Rhône brand was changed to Côtes du Rhône by decree .
The gold rush in Roquemaure
A law of 1769 allowed gold to be extracted in some of the rivers in the Kingdom of France. The sand of the Rhône near Roquemaure also contained some gold. Two gentlemen, the Marquis of Luchet and a baron, who were supported by the Duchess of Villeroy, first tried their hand at gold mining at Valence . This and another attempt at Avignon failed. The Marquis of Luchet then turned his attention to Roquemaure. On August 21, 1769 he leased the castle and an adjacent area for a period of 18 years. This cost him 48 livres a year. The choice fell on Roquemaure because the port offered particular advantages for the procurement of the processing material and the sale of the finished products. However, shortly afterwards the marquis sold his lease on to two gentlemen who had previously lent him the money he needed to run a foundry. They invested all of their assets in the project. The Marquis then occupied himself in another place with the establishment of a lead mine. From 1770 he built a lead and gold foundry on the formerly leased area, although he no longer even owned it. He also built various other buildings, including for future employees. He employed up to 300 workers with the construction. The Marquis was already bankrupt in October 1770, but found a rich financier to finance his project. In April 1771 the indebted Marquis Roquemaure left forever and left a building site behind. The foundry, which is no longer in use, was damaged during the revolution and the remains were auctioned off in 1791.
Population development
| year | 1962 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2008 | 2017 |
| Residents | 2925 | 3411 | 3646 | 4053 | 4647 | 4848 | 5238 | 5481 |
Attractions
church
The church of Roquemaure is named after John the Baptist Saint-Jean-Baptiste and dates from the 14th century. It is built in a Provencal Gothic style and contains a historic organ that was built in 1690 by the Julien brothers from Marseille for the Franciscan church in Avignon , moved to Roquemaure shortly before 1800 during the turmoil of the revolution and provided with a prospectus in 1820 . It also contains relics of Valentin von Terni since 1868 .
Chapels
The Saint-Joseph-des-Champs chapel is located two kilometers outside the town center on the 576 national road . It used to be on a road that connected the Languedoc with the Dauphiné . The chapel was built very early, apparently on the remains of an even older settlement, as traces of this settlement were found on the chapel. In 798, Charlemagne defeated the Sarrazenen at Rochefort-du-Gard, which is how the chapel was founded. However, their current appearance has changed significantly. A particularly large expansion of the chapel was made in the late 17th or early 18th centuries. The chapel of Saint-Agricol de Albaredo is on the same street . This emerged no later than the 10th century. Probably another chapel was built nearby in the 12th or 13th century, but it is no longer preserved today.
The Saint-Sauveur-de-Truel chapel is located at a crossroads . The name Truel is derived from a wine press that probably belonged to a Roman villa, but is no longer preserved today. The chapel is surrounded by several churches, all just two or three kilometers away. This is evidence of the numerous new churches built during the Middle Ages. There used to be a cemetery north of the chapel. At first the chapel belonged to the Abbey of Saint-André in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. Later it was temporarily owned by the Knights Templar . The date of creation is unknown, several elements suggest that it was created in the late 11th century. The olive oil mill of a Roman villa may have been in its place before.
Castles
Roquemaure Castle was first mentioned in 1209. Like the town, it initially belonged to the Count of Toulouse, who, along with eight other castles, had to cede it to the Catholic Church. In 1229 the place became the property of the French king. In the 14th and 15th centuries, many important people, including kings and even a Pope, stayed in the castle. Pope Clement V stayed there for several days to relax and died on April 20, 1314 in the castle of Roquemaure. In 1590 and 1591 the castle was partially destroyed during the Huguenot Wars. After the French Revolution , the stones of the castle were used as building material. Accordingly, it is no longer preserved today.
In the municipality there are also the Château de Truel in the hamlet of Truel and the Château de Cluny .
Town twinning
The city maintains a partnership with the Hessian community Ehringshausen . The partnership agreement was signed by the mayors of the two municipalities in October 1972.
Personalities
- Alphonse Louis Nicolas Borrelly (1842–1926), astronomer
- Humbert Clérissac (1864–1914), Catholic theologian
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The community on annuaire-mairie.fr
- ^ A b c Roquemaure, Berceau historiques des Côtes du Rhône
- ↑ Le Blason de Roquemaure
- ↑ Le siège du château de Roquemaure
- ↑ Le Phylloxéra
- ↑ La fonderie de Roquemaure
- ↑ Monuments de Roquemaure
- ↑ La chapelle saint Joseph des Champs
- ↑ La Chapelle Saint Sauveur de Truel
- ↑ Le Château de Roquemaure
- ↑ La ville jumelée avec Roquemaure