Saint-Paulet-de-Caisson
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| region | Occitania | |
| Department | Gard | |
| Arrondissement | Nîmes | |
| Canton | Pont-Saint-Esprit | |
| Community association | Gard Rhodania | |
| Coordinates | 44 ° 16 ′ N , 4 ° 36 ′ E | |
| height | 50-293 m | |
| surface | 16.88 km 2 | |
| Residents | 1,810 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 107 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 30130 | |
| INSEE code | 30290 | |
| Website | ville-saintpauletdecaisson.fr | |
 Saint-Paulet Church |
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Saint-Paulet-de-Caisson is a French commune with 1,810 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Gard department in the Occitanie region .
geography
Saint-Paulet-de-Caisson is located in the far north of the Gard department and thus at the intersection of several regions and landscapes. On the one hand, the municipality borders on the Ardèche department ; on the other hand, it is located between the Rhone bank , which runs a few kilometers to the east, and the Cevennes , which extend westwards in a north-south direction. Beyond the Rhône, the historic landscapes of Provence and Dauphiné merge, while Saint-Paulet can be counted as part of the Languedoc .
The municipality is mainly traversed by the Ardèche , which lies north of the town center and partially forms the border with the Ardèche department. The Ruisseau du Compère and the Ruisseau du Moulin also run close to the village. The neighboring municipalities of Saint-Paulet-de-Caisson are Saint-Just-d'Ardèche in the north, Pont-Saint-Esprit in the east, Carsan and Saint-Michel-d'Euzet in the south, Salazac in the south-west and Saint-Julien-de -Peyrolas in the northwest. The city of Pont-Saint-Esprit, located four kilometers east of the Rhône, is the municipality's largest neighbor.
Infrastructure
The town is connected to long-distance traffic via the A7 autoroute , which leads north to Lyon and south to Marseille . In the nearby of its branches Orange the A9 autoroute from which, among other things Nimes and Montpellier to the Spanish border and from there to Barcelona leads.
history
Origin of name
The part of the name Saint-Paulet goes back to the apostle Paul . While this is a safe assumption, the origin of the caisson part is not that clear. The chronicler Eugène Germer Durand claimed in one of his works in 1878 that the name goes back to an old county that existed at the time of Charlemagne and that its name was only preserved in the place name of Saint-Paulet. Primary sources from the 8th and 9th centuries mention a Valus Caxoniensis or Valus Caxonica , which probably denoted a section of the Cèze valley around the present-day location. The origin of the name, however, is seen in the time of the Roman occupation and therefore goes back to a Roman villa. From the first name of the owner of the complex, which would have to be called Cassius, the name for the villa and later for the entire surrounding area developed as a result of this theory.
The part of the name that refers to the apostle Paul, however, emerged later. From the early 13th century, the place is named by sources either only with the name of the saint or, as in a source from 1209, already in its current form. At that time the village was called Sanctus Paulus de Caysson . In the first centuries after the apostle gave the name, it existed both in the variant Saint-Paul and in its diminutive Saint-Paulet . By 1600, however, the Saint-Paulet form had prevailed. In 1774, a few years before the French Revolution , the place was mentioned as Saint Paulet de Caÿsson . Due to the radical de-Christianization associated with the revolution , the name was shortened to Caisson in 1793 . However, it only took until 1795 for the original name to be restored. Since then it has had its current form in the exact spelling.
Industrial history
The coal industry in the region began at the beginning of one of the 19th century. In this early phase of mining, the coal was only used by private individuals and exclusively for domestic use. In 1805 the people involved founded an interest group under the name Société Aubert . From it later other companies of the same form emerged, in whose possession the local mine remained until 1942. The mine was an important source of income for the town until it was sold, but it also had a limited budget and required great physical effort from the workers. The workers, however, were mostly farmers who used the work in mining as a sideline. It was the Pechiney concern that bought the mine in 1942 and wanted to professionalize it. Despite these attempts, the output never exceeded a level of just over a hundred tons of coal a day. Accordingly, the mine was faced with the task that took place in December 1962, 20 years after the takeover by Pechiney.
In addition to the mine, there was a car fuel factory in Saint-Paulet from 1929. Despite the high quality of the products, the factory had to temporarily close after half a year due to a lack of money. Because rumors of a possible impending war arose in France around 1936, a reopening was discussed. The Second World War broke out, ultimately, before a decision was made. The remains of the production facilities and the mine have been preserved.
Population development
| year | 1962 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2010 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residents | 870 | 930 | 944 | 1141 | 1431 | 1602 | 1771 | 1810 |
Attractions
Chartreuse de Valbonne
The Chartreuse de Valbonne monastery complex , which is a charterhouse , is located around six kilometers outside the town center in a valley basin. The name is derived from this, which developed from vallis bona and can be translated as "good valley". The branch was founded in 1203, a little over a hundred years after the Carthusian Order was founded . When numerous looters roamed the country during the Hundred Years War in the 14th and 15th centuries, the monastery was also affected and badly damaged. The same thing happened during the Huguenot Wars , with the Chartreuse de Valbonne looted and set on fire in 1585. The documents that had been created and stored there since its foundation were destroyed. Thanks to the commitment of a clergyman named François Laurent, the Charterhouse was rebuilt from 1633. This has largely been preserved to this day, even if the main church dates from the 1770s.
The decisions of the French Revolution forced the monks to leave the monastery. This process was completed on October 1, 1790, when the last brother turned his back on the monastery and at the same time it became the property of the state. Much of the complex was again badly damaged by the looting or sale of objects. In 1836 it was bought back by the Carthusian monks for a sum of 65,300 francs and then restored. A law, which among other things provided for the renewed confiscation of church property by the state, caused the monks living in Valbonne to flee to Spain in 1901, where they participated in the reconstruction of the Aula Dei Charterhouse . For the Chartreuse de Valbonne, which passed into the possession of an industrialist from Calais in 1907 , this meant the final end of its history as a populated monastery. In 1926 a Protestant clergyman bought the facility and built a leper colony there, which opened in 1929 . Because the disease continued to decline after the Second World War, a facility for mental illnesses was created next to it.
Chapel of Sainte-Agnès
The Sainte-Agnès chapel is around a kilometer north of the village . At first it consisted of a simple basic structure until an apse was added in the 12th century . It is considered an example of the Romanesque architectural style used in the chapel , which is also embodied by the six-arched nave. The chapel's small bell tower probably dates from the 17th century and is known as the “lantern of the dead”. In earlier times, the site of the church included a cemetery, which is no longer preserved today.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ville de Saint Paulet de Caisson , gard-provencal.com
- ^ Mairie de Saint-Paulet-de-Caisson , annuaire-mairie.fr
- ↑ a b c d e ville-saintpauletdecaisson.fr