Saint-Menoux

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Saint-Menoux
Saint-Menoux (France)
Saint-Menoux
region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Department Allier
Arrondissement Moulins
Canton Souvigny
Community association Bocage Bourbonnais
Coordinates 46 ° 35 ′  N , 3 ° 10 ′  E Coordinates: 46 ° 35 ′  N , 3 ° 10 ′  E
height 214-277 m
surface 27.62 km 2
Residents 1,045 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 38 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 03210
INSEE code
Website Saint-Menoux

Church Saint-Menoux

Saint-Menoux is a town in central France and a municipality with 1,045 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Allier department in the north of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region .

location

The place Saint-Menoux is located in the fertile and wooded landscape of the Bourbonnais at an altitude of about 235 meters above sea level. d. M. The town of Moulins is about 16 kilometers (driving distance) to the east; the town of Nevers in southern Burgundy is about 64 kilometers to the north. The municipality owns several hamlets ( hamlets ) and individual farms.

Population development

year 1962 1968 1975 1982 1990 1999 2006 2012 2015
Residents 948 901 787 929 986 940 920 1,041 1.009

In the 19th century the number of inhabitants rose from around 900 to almost 1,800; Due to the phylloxera crisis in viticulture and the mechanization of agriculture , the number of inhabitants in the municipality then fell continuously to the lows in the 1970s.

economy

For centuries, the inhabitants of Saint-Menoux, who were mostly dependent on the monastery, lived as self-sufficient farmers from agriculture, which also included viticulture; in addition there were regional retail trade and handicrafts. Medieval pilgrimage tourism also played an important role . During the phylloxera crisis at the end of the 19th century came the viticulture temporarily ground to a halt, but are now being produced again red, rosé and white wines on the appellation de Val Loire ' are marketed. Some of the vacant houses in the village have been converted into holiday apartments ( gîtes ).

history

When the monastery of Saint Menulphus ( Saint-Menoux ), who was active in the 6th or 7th century , was founded and whether a settlement already existed at that time is unknown; The place name Malliacum has been handed down from the early Middle Ages . Today's church was built in several construction phases from the 10th to the 13th century and formed both the center of a community of Benedictine women and the core of the place, which experienced a great economic boom due to the medieval pilgrimage and ongoing building activities, but to a large extent from Archdiocese of Bourges remained dependent. During the French Revolution the monastery was closed; the enclosure buildings and the abbesses' tombs inside the church were destroyed.

Attractions

Choir and apse of the former abbey church with a pointed barrel vault
View of the church from the west with the narthex porch
Tympanum of the Maison des Vertus cardinales with the four female allegories of the cardinal virtues
Château de Souys , garden side

See also: List of Monuments historiques in Saint-Menoux

  • The former abbey church and today's parish church of Saint-Menoux is a three-aisled building with a total length of around 62 meters; she has an ambulatory with radiating chapels , a transept , a reconstructed 19th-century crossing tower and a plain in appearance, and spacious vestibule ( narthex ) to the west. The history of the building is quite complex: it is assumed that the narthex is the oldest component and that it may come from a previous building that had been demolished in the 10th or 11th century; the nave, partly showing Gothic forms, together with the crossing tower is mostly attributed to the 13th century - only the imposing and richly designed choir area is dated to the middle of the 12th century; the fluted pilasters located there and a barrel vault pointed at the apex clearly refer to the architectural model of the abbey church of Cluny , but the rest of the architectural equipment ( meander frieze , double columns , mighty capitals with abstract, vegetable forms) is of the finest quality. The interior of the church includes the stone sarcophagus ( débredinoire ) of St. Menulphus with windows on the side ; the large, semicircular opening allowed pilgrims to stick their heads into the sarcophagus, which supposedly relieved or even cured headaches and other mental illnesses. The imposing church building was recognized as a monument historique back in 1840 .
  • The portal tympanum of the Maison des Vertus cardinales from 1694 shows a high baroque figure relief depicting the four cardinal virtues ( iustitia , temperantia , fortitudo and sapientia ). It was inscribed on the list of historical monuments in 2000 .
Surroundings
  • The Château de Souys ( 46 ° 35 '21.1 "  N , 3 ° 10' 42.3"  O ) is a construction of the mid-17th century. The buildings on the north side are grouped around a courtyard; the garden ground floor connects to the south. The privately owned building complex was recognized as a Monument historique in 1952 .
  • In place or in its surroundings more are privately owned mansions located: the Château de Clusors with rooms, the Château le Goutet and the Château de la Mhotte ( 46 ° 34 '19 "  N , 3 ° 6' 54"  O ), which today serves as a Waldorf school .

literature

  • Le Patrimoine des Communes de l'Allier. Flohic Editions, Volume 2, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-84234-053-1 , pp. 995-1000.

Web links

Commons : Saint-Menoux  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Église Saint-Menoux, Saint-Menoux in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  2. Maison des Vertus cardinales, Saint-Menoux in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  3. Château de Souys, Saint-Menoux in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)