Unac (Ariège)

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Unac
Unac (France)
Unac
region Occitania
Department Ariège
Arrondissement Foix
Canton Haute-Ariège
Community association Haute Ariège
Coordinates 42 ° 46 ′  N , 1 ° 47 ′  E Coordinates: 42 ° 46 ′  N , 1 ° 47 ′  E
height 598-1,160 m
surface 2.65 km 2
Residents 120 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 45 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 09250
INSEE code 09318

Saint Martin Church

Unac ( Occitan : identical) is a mountain village and a small southern French municipality with 120 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Ariège department in the Occitanie region .

location

The place Unac is at an altitude of 650 to 680 meters above sea level. d. M. in the valley of the Ariège at the foot of the Pyrenees . The health resort of Ax-les-Thermes is only about nine kilometers (driving distance) in a south-easterly direction; the towns of Foix and Pamiers are about 36 and 56 kilometers northwest, respectively.

Population development

year 1962 1968 1975 1982 1990 1999 2006 2012
Residents 170 146 137 121 118 117 122 116

In the 19th century the place had mostly between 250 and 400 inhabitants. The phylloxera crisis in viticulture and the mechanization of agriculture led to a loss of jobs in the late 19th and 20th centuries and, as a consequence, to a continuous decline in the number of inhabitants to the lowest levels of the last decades.

economy

The inhabitants of Unac live mainly from agriculture (milk and cheese production). In the late Middle Ages, the gold panning in the Ariège river bed is mentioned; there were also several watermills here. Nowadays tourism - also in the form of renting holiday homes ( gîtes ) - plays an important role in the economic life of the small community.

history

In 1078 Roger II , Count von Foix , donated the church of Unac ( Huguenacum ) he had built to Cluny Abbey , which a few years later (1104) donated it to the Saint-Volusien Abbey in Foix as a priory church ; the abbey property is in a document of Pope Honorius III. Confirmed from 1224. In 1213, a castle ( château ) of the Counts of Foix in Unac is mentioned, which may mean the church, and Unhaco was officially part of the county since 1272 . In the years between 1318 and 1325, an inquisition tribunal under the direction of the Bishop of Pamiers met in town for a total of 370 days . The Unac priory ended in 1665; since then the church has been used exclusively as a parish church.

Attractions

Central apse
Apse window

The three-aisled former priory church and today's parish church of Saint-Martin impresses with its location as well as its three apsidial east section and the multi-storey bell tower on the south side . The church was built on sloping ground, so that fillings and relining were necessary. While of the three apses made of precisely hewn stone material, only the middle one has a pilaster structure and comes up with three impressively designed window frames, the towering bell tower shows clear echoes of the Lombard architectural style, which was then in all of Central and Southern Europe and especially in the Pyrenees region (cf. for example the steeples of Mérens-les-Vals , Sant Climent de Taüll or the Cathedral of Vic ); the gable roof and the two clocks are later additions. The portal, which was later renewed, is on the south side; the barrel-vaulted interior of the church is partially plastered and painted with joints . The church building has been recognized as a monument historique since 1846 .

Web links

Commons : Unac  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Église Saint-Martin, Unac in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)