Villerouge-Termenès

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Villerouge-Termenès
Vilaroja de Termenés
Coat of arms of Villerouge-Termenès
Villerouge-Termenès (France)
Villerouge-Termenès
region Occitania
Department Aude
Arrondissement Narbonne
Canton Les Corbières
Community association Région Lézignanaise, Corbières et Minervois
Coordinates 43 ° 0 ′  N , 2 ° 38 ′  E Coordinates: 43 ° 0 ′  N , 2 ° 38 ′  E
height 272-620 m
surface 19.41 km 2
Residents 147 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 8 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 11330
INSEE code 11435

Villerouge-Termenès - the village

Villerouge-Termenès ( Occitan : Vilaroja de Termenés ) is a place and a small municipality ( commune ) in the south of France with 147 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017). It is located in the Aude department in the Occitanie region .

location

The village of Villerouge-Termenès, surrounded by a lot of forest, is located at an altitude of about 310 meters above sea level. d. M. on the eastern edge of the Corbières about 44 kilometers (driving distance) southwest of Narbonne or 50 kilometers southeast of Carcassonne . It is about 13 kilometers to the southwestern canton capital Mouthoumet . The small town of Termes with its imposing castle ruins is about 13 kilometers to the west.

Population development

year 1962 1968 1975 1982 1990 1999 2006 2012
Residents 210 176 140 146 154 158 158 145

In the 19th century the community usually had between 300 and 420 inhabitants. The phylloxera crisis in viticulture and the mechanization of agriculture led to a loss of jobs and a continuous decline in the number of inhabitants to the lows of recent decades.

economy

Viticulture is the main source of income for the place; the vineyards of Villerouge-Termenès are within the protected designation of origin Corbières ; the red, rosé and white wines produced here are marketed through the Languedoc , Aude , Pays d'Oc , Pays Cathare and Corbières appellations. Since the 1970s and 1980s, a little tourism has been added as a source of income in the form of renting holiday apartments ( gîtes ). Sheep farming , the former main line of business, is hardly practiced any more; on the other hand, the breeding and keeping of goats for the production of the soft cheese Pélardon still plays a certain role today.

history

It is not known whether a small settlement existed here before the castle was built, or whether it developed afterwards. Since the beginning of the 12th century, the castle and village of Villerouge belonged to the Archdiocese of Narbonne . It is true that the Counts of Termes ( Seigneurs de Termes ) also repeatedly raised claims to ownership, but the Pope always rejected them. The castle was the seat of the bailiff and a secondary residence of the archbishop. In 1321 Wilhelm Belibaste , the last 'perfect' of the Cathar sect , was burned at the stake there . With the French Revolution, all inherited property rights of the nobility and the church lapsed. Until the 1980s, some poor families lived in the castle walls, which were fundamentally restored after the castle was acquired by the municipality in the 1990s.

In 1962, the place Villerouge was renamed Villerouge-Termenès.

Attractions

Saint-Etienne church
Altar retable in the Église St-Étienne

Castle

The castle of Villerouge-Termenès was built in the 12th century by the Archbishop of Narbonne and was the seat of one of their eleven baillies .

Others

  • With the exception of the corner stones , the Église Saint-Étienne , built from only slightly smoothed quarry stones , stands on the south side of the Lou Brook and is the parish church of the village; it comes from the 13th / 14th centuries. Century. The pointed barrel vaulted interior is - as is usual with most churches in south-west France - single-nave with a retracted square apse . This contains a remarkable altar retable from the 16th century ( Renaissance ) with scenes from the Passion of St. Stephen . A simple Romanesque baptismal font at the entrance also deserves attention. The nave was plastered in the 19th century and equipped with joint paintings, etc.; the building has been recognized as a monument historique since 1913 .
  • Some houses in the village show their quarry stone masonry again.
  • A single arched medieval bridge leads over the Lou brook , which, however, can swell into a torrential body of water after heavy or prolonged rainfall.
  • There is a 16th century cross on the cemetery wall, which has been recognized as a monument historique since 1941 .
  • Only the base from the 14th century has been preserved of another cross on the church square; it too has been recognized as a monument historique since 1926 .
  • A privately owned house from the end of the 18th century has been registered as a monument historique since 1952 because of its facade decoration .

Personalities

Web links

Commons : Villerouge-Termenès  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Église, Villerouge-Termenès in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  2. ↑ Croix de chemin, Villerouge-Termenès in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  3. ^ Socle de Croix, Villerouge-Termenès in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  4. ^ Maison, Villerouge-Termenès in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)