Saint-Béat
| Saint-Béat | ||
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| local community | Saint-Béat-Lez | |
| region | Occitania | |
| Department | Haute-Garonne | |
| Arrondissement | Saint-Gaudens | |
| Coordinates | 42 ° 55 ' N , 0 ° 42' E | |
| Post Code | 31440 | |
| Former INSEE code | 31471 | |
| Incorporation | 1st January 2019 | |
.JPG) Saint-Béat in the Garonne Valley |
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Saint-Béat is a village and a former French commune with last 345 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2016) in the Haute-Garonne department in the Occitania region . The inhabitants are called Saint-Béatais .
With effect from January 1, 2019, the former municipalities of Lez and Saint-Béat were merged to form the Commune nouvelle Saint-Béat-Lez , in which only Lez received the status of a Commune déléguée .
geography
Saint-Béat is located in the Pyrenees , in the south of the Haute-Garonne department. The place is in the valley of the Garonne , at the foot of the Pic du Gar about 33 kilometers southeast of Saint-Gaudens . It is served by Route nationale 125 , the SNCF train station is called Marignac – Saint-Béat.
history
Legend has it that Saint-Béat is named after a local saint, the missionary of the Beauce , who is said to have also killed a dragon.
In ancient times, the area around Saint-Béat was called Passus Lupi ("Wolf's ford") because the hunting routes of the hungry Pyrenees wolves from the Val d'Aran led here over a ford in the Garonne. Since the place and the citadel built here held a key position in the Garonne Valley, it was also called clé de la France ("Key to France"), which is expressed in the city's coat of arms. Several dedicatory inscriptions for the deity Erriapus have been found from the Gallo-Roman period .
Today Saint-Béat is known for the marble quarries which, according to some finds, were already used by the Romans. They are therefore called brèche romaine ("Roman quarry"). A regional tradition reports that Trajan's Column in Rome was built from this marble, which has been proven to be incorrect. The pillars of the monastery building in Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges and some fountains and statues in the park of Versailles are actually made of this marble. Today the festival de sculpture de marbre for young sculptors takes place here.
For a long time, Saint-Béat was the gathering place for donkeys and mules that were driven across the mountains to Spain. Floods during the Garonne floods and rockfalls after thunderstorms were a constant threat to residents. In 1999 the site was the epicenter of a 4.8 magnitude earthquake .
From 1914 to 1953 an electric tram line ran from Marignac via Saint-Béat to Pont-du-Roy .
The marshal, war minister and governor of Madagascar , Joseph Gallieni (1849-1916), was born in the village, as was the Napoleonic general Jean Léonard Barrié (1762-1848) and the fresco painter Romain Cazes (1810-1881).
The municipality of Saint-Béat merged with Lez on January 1, 2019 to form the Commune nouvelle Saint-Béat-Lez.
Attractions
A balcony of a house in the village is said to have served the theater writer Edmond Rostand as a model for the famous balcony scene in the verse drama Cyrano de Bergerac .
In addition to the Roman quarry, the castle with a chapel and the Saint-Béat Saint-Privat church with treasury (classified as Monument historique 1926 and 1994), both from the 12th century, are worth seeing. The relics of Saint Béat and Saint Privat are buried in a tomb in the church. The Chapelle de Géry, Chapelle de Ladivert and Chapelle troglodytique (rock cave construction) Saint-Roch , as well as the birthplace of Marshal Gallieni are also among the tourist attractions.
Town center
Brèche romaine
Castle with chapel
Saint-Béat Saint-Privat
Chapelle Saint-Roch
Gallieni monument
.JPG)
literature
- Le Patrimoine des Communes de la Haute-Garonne. Flohic Editions, Volume 2, Paris 2000, ISBN 2-84234-081-7 , pp. 1323-1330.
Web links
- Site plan on Google maps (accessed on August 27, 2012)