Sainte-Colombe (Charente)
Sainte -Colombe is a southwestern French village with 174 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2011 ) in the department of Charente in the Poitou -Charentes.
Location
Sainte -Colombe is located about 110 meters above sea level. inst and about 32 km ( driving distance ) north-east of Angoulême or about 14 kilometers northwest of La Rochefoucauld. The nearby towns of Saint- Angeau ( 3.5 km north-west ) and Agris (8 miles south ) are also worth seeing.
Demographics
In the first census in France in 1793, the city had 445 inhabitants; then the population temporarily increased to over 500. Around the year 1900 there were 400 inhabitants.
Economy
Sainte -Colombe lives mainly from agriculture, and viticulture. Since the 1970s, the rental of apartments ( gîtes ) has been added as an important source of income of the village.
History
About the story of Sainte -Colombe There is little information. Two Roman roads - the Via Agrippa of Saintes ( Mediolanum Santonum ) to Clermont ( Augustonemetum ) or Lyon ( Lugdunum ) and another road that connected Angoulême ( Ecolisma ) and Bourges ( Avaricum ) - led by near the town. As the Romanesque church proves the place was inhabited since the Middle Ages.
Attractions
- The single-nave Romanesque church of Sainte -Colombe is Saint Columba consecrated by Sens - one in the Middle Ages in Western Europe quite popular saint. The church originates mainly in the late 12th century and is one of the most beautiful in the Charente: The first four bays of the outer wall of the nave are built of well -hewn stones and broken down by high arcades with small window openings. At the eastern yoke but this structural element is missing: the outer wall has no limbs - as well as those of the apse; this points - points to an earlier construction of Ostpartie the church - along with the significantly worse hewn stone material. The west facade is divided comparatively rich by four buttresses and a multi- tiered Archivolts portal; in the upper part of figurative architectural decoration ( evangelist symbols, etc. ) is apparent - in the west window even set the column by two strong overlength figures of St. Columba and St. Peter ( or of St. Augustine, the companion of St. Columba ) to be replaced. It moves a figural frieze console ( a console shows a male penis) both the facade and the first four bays of the church building; the west facade ends in a double lancet bell gable. The church was incorporated in the year 1973 in the list of Monuments historiques.
- From the Château de Sainte -Colombe just a massive quadrangular tower is obtained, which is accompanied by a small round tower with an internal spiral staircase ( vis). The tower closes at the top in circulating Machicolation and a - formerly probably not covered - parapet platform.