Saint-Gobain

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Saint-Gobain (disambiguation) .

Saint-Gobain
region	Hauts-de-France
Department	Aisne
Arrondissement	Laon
Canton	Tergnier
Community association	Chauny Tergnier la Fère
Coordinates	49 ° 36 '  N , 3 ° 23'  E Coordinates: 49 ° 36 '  N , 3 ° 23'  E
height	53-207 m
surface	29.73 km 2
Residents	2,282 (January 1, 2017)
Population density	77 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code	02410
INSEE code	02680
Website	www.villedesaintgobain.com
Saint-Gobain in the 18th century

Saint-Gobain is a French commune with 2,282 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Hauts-de-France region (until 2015 Picardy ) in northern France .

geography

Saint-Gobain is located 20 kilometers west-northwest of Laon and 30 kilometers south of Saint-Quentin in the state forest of Saint-Gobain ( forêt domaniale de Saint-Gobain ).

history

The name of the community goes back to an Irish monk named Goban , who visited the area in the 7th century to do missionary work. Legend has it that Goban, fleeing from pagan persecutors, rested in the forest and fell asleep. When he woke up, he found that where he had stuck his stick in the ground there was a spring of excellent water. He decided to settle in what is now called the Mont de l'ermitage (Hermitage Hill). According to tradition, he performed a series of miraculous healings in the area until his opponents captured him and beheaded him on June 20, 670. The site of his execution subsequently became a place of pilgrimage, around which the village of Saint-Gobain developed.

The forest of St. Gobain was already a popular hunting ground for Charlemagne , the Emperor of the Franks . The Charles-Fontaine, renamed “Karlsbrunnen” during the First World War, is a reminder of him. The St. Lambert Festival near Fourdrain was his palace .

In the 13th century the village came into the possession of the nobles of Coucy ( sires de Coucy ). One of them, Enguerrand III. , built a number of castles in the vicinity, including from 1226 to 1242 the castle of Saint-Gobain, a large castle with five towers with an approximately square floor plan with a side length of around 100 m. This castle was built in 1475 on the orders of King Ludwig XI. looped.

The walls were left to decay for two centuries until, in 1692, Louis XIV made them available to the Compagnie des Grandes Glaces as a production facility for mirror glass . The village entered European industrial history: in 1830 the company took the name of the place and became the Compagnie de Saint-Gobain , the forerunner of today's global corporation. Even before that, in the 18th century, the village had become a center of European glass production, thanks to new production processes that pushed back the previously dominant Venetian glass manufacture. In 1856 a railway line was laid, over which raw materials and finished glass products were transported. In 1892 production was expanded to include bricks and floor slabs.

After severe destruction and production stoppages in both world wars, the factory was rebuilt and glass production continued. In 1982 the glass for the pyramid in front of the Louvre was made in the Saint-Gobain glass furnace , in a particularly light quality with special chromatic properties, for which extensive studies had previously been carried out.

On November 30, 1993, the group decided to stop production at the Saint-Gobain site. On December 31, 1995, after 300 years of glass production, glass was produced on site for the last time.

Population development

	year	Residents		year	Residents		year	Residents		year	Residents
	1793	2023		1856	2374		1901	2317		1962	2994
	1800	2013		1861	2261		1906	2268		1968	2893
	1806	2119		1866	2190		1911	2305		1975	2657
	1821	2339		1872	2133		1921	1586		1982	2278
	1831	2338		1876	2193		1926	2196		1990	2321
	1836	2378		1881	2120		1931	1976		1999	2340
	1841	2256		1886	2219		1936	1909		2004	2343
	1846	2186		1891	2346		1946	2217		2006	2349
	1851	2210		1896	2147		1954	2535		2016	2267
from 1962 without residents with double residence

coat of arms

Blazon : “A shield head supported by a red bar is divided by blue-silver monkshood ; below in black and pale as three silver Salamander without flame glory , the first and third to the left versa. "

Attractions

building

• Church from the 12th century with a crypt worth seeing
• Monumental stone portal of the former glass factory

Natural sights

The forest that surrounds the place was formerly owned by the glass factory and is now a state domain. It is a mixed forest with oak , red beech , hornbeam and ash . Also birch , wild cherry , lime and chestnut finds you. A network of footpaths runs through the forest. Particularly noteworthy trees are shown on the local hiking map; the same points as the rocks of the hermitage ( Roches de l'Ermitage ), the Seizine cross ( Croix Seizine ), the Sébourgand quarries ( carrières Sébourgand ) and others. The forest is rich in red deer and wild boar .

Economy and Infrastructure

tourism

After the discontinuation of glass production, the community relies on tourism as an economic factor and attracts visitors.

traffic

There is a train connection via La Fère train station, 8 km away, and Tergnier train station, 12 km away. The latter offers fast direct connections to Paris' Gare du Nord and Maubeuge .

The French motorway 26 ( E 17 ) can be reached via junction 12 in a north-northeast direction 15 kilometers away.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The presentation in this section is based on the website of the community about its history ( Memento of the original from May 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , visited on June 6, 2009 at 5:00 p.m. 
2. ↑ Statistics on cassini.ehess.fr
3. ↑ De sable aux trois salamandres d'argent rangées en pal, la première et la dernière contournées; au chef coupé de vair et de gueules.
4. ↑ L'historique de Saint-Gobain. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 30, 2009 ; Retrieved June 6, 2009 (French, paragraphs at the bottom). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Web links

Commons : Saint-Gobain (Aisne)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official web presence of the municipality