Villefranche-de-Rouergue
| Villefranche-de-Rouergue | ||
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| region | Occitania | |
| Department | Aveyron | |
| Arrondissement | Villefranche-de-Rouergue | |
| Canton | Villefranche-de-Rouergue | |
| Community association | Grand Villefranchois | |
| Coordinates | 44 ° 21 ′ N , 2 ° 2 ′ E | |
| height | 237-544 m | |
| surface | 45.85 km 2 | |
| Residents | 11,867 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 259 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 12200 | |
| INSEE code | 12300 | |
Villefranche-de-Rouergue ( Occitan Vilafranca de Roergue ) is a French commune with 11,867 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Aveyron department in the Occitanie region ; it is the administrative center of the arrondissement of Villefranche-de-Rouergue .
geography
Villefranche-de-Rouergue is located in the Aveyron valley on the fault that separates the Causse (wheat cultivation) from the Ségala (rye cultivation). There are copper , lead , tin , iron and silver mines , phosphate mining and quarries.
Here the right tributary Alzou flows into the Aveyron.
history
From the foundation to the Second World War
When the Capetians inherited the county of Toulouse , Najac , the old administrative center of the Rouergue , remained in the possession of members of the old dynasty. Alfonso of Poitiers therefore founded a new city a few kilometers away in 1252, which he made his administrative seat, Villefranche-de-Rouergue, which he endowed with tax advantages in order to ensure the success of the foundation, giving it the name on the one hand and the chessboard-like complex on the other the city is declared. The establishment of Villefranches, which took place at the same time as the construction of four other bastides in the Aveyron Valley, also served to secure the border to Gascony, which was ruled by the House of Plantagenet . In 1256 a municipal constitution was issued. The city administration was run by consuls. A Bailli has resided here since 1269 .
From 1347 Villefranche was provided with city walls. Soon afterwards it fell into the hands of Edward, the Black Prince , and remained under English control for a decade from 1360. However, it was the first town in Guyenne to rise against the English. New privileges were granted to the city in 1370 by the French King Charles V , but by King Louis XI. canceled again. In 1497 a major fire raged in Villefranche, two years later riots broke out here over the distribution of taxes.
In 1588 the inhabitants drove out the troops of the Holy League and later murdered a governor sent by Henry IV . The city was ravaged by the plague in 1348–49, 1463, 1558 and 1628 . In 1643 there was a peasant uprising due to the high demands of the artistic directors, but this uprising was brutally suppressed. In 1779 Villefranche became the capital of the new province of Haute-Guyenne . With the French Revolution and the creation of the Aveyron department, Villefranche had to give up this status to Rodez , which resulted in an economic decline.
Uprising during the Second World War
During the training of the SS Mountain Pioneer Battalion 13 of the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS "Handschar" (Croatian No. 1) , on September 17, 1943, communist agents provocateurs staged a mutiny in which several SS officers were killed. The forcibly recruited teams of the 13th Engineer Battalion, consisting mostly of Bosniaks and a quarter of Croats , rose up against the German command. After killing the German officers, they took control of the city for a day. The imam of the battalion Halim Malkoč and the troop doctor Willfried Schweiger convinced the mutineers to give up and disarmed them. For this, Malkoč was probably the first Muslim to receive the Iron Cross in October 1943 during the Second World War . Insurgents were overwhelmed by neighboring garrisons, superior in numbers and equipment, after street fighting. Survivors sentenced to death , executed and buried in what is now known as the Champs des martyrs croates . The leaders of the uprising were Ferid Džanić, Eduard Matutinović, Nikola Vukelić and Božo Jelinek. Džanić and Vukelić fell, Jelinek and Matutinović managed to escape into the Maquis ; Jelinek was later accepted into the Legion of Honor .
Population development
| year | Residents |
|---|---|
| 1954 | 8676 |
| 1962 | 9540 |
| 1968 | 10,709 |
| 1975 | 12,284 |
| 1982 | 12,693 |
| 1990 | 12,291 |
| 1999 | 11,919 |
| <11,894 |
Attractions
- Notre-Dame church (13th-16th centuries) with a 58 meter high tower
- Place des Couverts with medieval arcades
- Old Bastide (13th century)
- The former Saint-Sauveur Charterhouse (15th century) founded by the wealthy merchant Vézian Valette
- Chapel of the Pénitents Noirs (17th century),
- Château de Graves (16th century).
- Cistercian Abbey Loc-Dieu (12th – 15th centuries), ten kilometers to the west
- Champs des martyrs croates
- In the city's media library is the estate of the French "jazz pope" Hugues Panassié .
Town twinning
Personalities
- Marshal Belle-Isle (1684–1761)
- François Borie (1786-1822)
- Émilie de Rodat (1787–1852), founder of the order
- Vincent Cibiel (1797–1871)
- Francis Carco (1886–1958), writer and art critic
- Henri Navarre (1898-1983), General
- Robert Fabre (1915-2006), politician
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mirko D. Grmek, Louise L. Lambrichs: Les révoltés de Villefranche: mutinerie d'un bataillon de Waffen-ss à Villefranche-De-Rouergue September 1943 . Seuil, Paris 1998.