Varaignes
Varaignes ( Occitan Varanha ) is a commune with 425 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2011) in the Dordogne in the Aquitaine region. It belongs to the district Nontron and Canton Bussière- Badil. It also forms part of the Périgord -Limousin Regional Natural Park.
Etymology
The place name is probably back to the Gallo-Roman personal names Varanius or Veranius.
Geography
Varaignes is located 4 km north-west of Javerlhac and 16 kilometers northwest of Nontron. The municipality is located on the right side near the major axis Nontron - Angoulême ( D 75 ) and can be obtained from this via the D 90, which binds them in addition to the cross - connection Montbron Piégut -Pluviers.
Varaignes is a border village on the Charente and is surrounded by the following municipalities:
- Eymouthiers (Charente ) in the north
- Soudat in the Northeast
- Teyjat in the East
- Javerlhac -et -la -Chapelle -Saint -Robert in the south
- Souffrignac and Feuillade in the West ( both Charente)
- Montbron (Charente ) in the northwest
The following hamlets and isolated farms belong to the municipality: Basse Côte, Beauséjour, Bellevue, Chablat, Chez Berthonnet, Chez Bouret, Chez Chèvre, Chez Durand, Chez Gauty, Chez Guillout, Chez Marot, Chez Mondy, Chez Raby, Chez Rouyer, La Baysse, La Côte, La Vacherie, le Cousset, Le Débat, Le Fayard, Le Gauty, Le Grand Moulin, Les Faure, Les Loges, Les Penauds, Les Peyrières, Les Virades, Montchoisy and Quillac.
Varaignes is a right tributary of the Bandiat, the southwestward -flowing river of the same name Varaignes.
Geology
The municipality is underlain in its entirety by flat-lying sedimentary rocks of the Dogger, on the merits of white, chalky Oolithkalken from the Middle Bajocian. This is followed by Upper Bajocian (white and beige Oolithkalke peloidführende limes ) and Lower Bathonian ( brown, lithoklastenreiche Kalkmikrite ). The sediments form part of the Aquitaine basin, they transgredierten in Lias further east at Soudat on the Variscan basement of the Massif Central. The Bajocian is a very good aquifer and tends also to Karstifizierung.
Just before the entrance crosses a southeast-northwest - striking fault zone, which runs parallel to the fault zone of Javerlhac with an offset of 150 meters to the northeast and possibly by holding up Vouthon. On her the basement block located on the northeast side was lifted. It shows the same mineralization with cadmium -containing zinc and lead ( sphalerite and galena with Greenockit ).
At the northwest edge of the municipality attracts an elongated tertiary alluvial alluvial fan from the basement out of the sedimentary rocks of time; it consists of sands and gravels, forming topographic ridge.
Plateau and slopes are often masked by Pleistocene unconsolidated sediments.
In the valley of the Middle Pleistocene Bandiat, ocher-colored, clayey sands were deposited with polished quartz and basement pebbles on a central patio.
History
The traces of human settlement can be in Varaignes to the Paleolithic trace ( finds at Les Roches ). Also for the Gallo -Roman culture, found evidence. The church of Saint -Jean Baptiste dates from the 12th or 13th century ( with its Romanesque choir, Romanesque door in the Limousin style and Gothic side chapels ). With the construction of the castle of Varaignes was also begun in the 13th century, in the 16th century it was heavily remodeled. It has a donjon (keep ), battlements, underground cellar and an entrance porch in the Renaissance style.
Demographics
Source: INSEE
The population is generally declining, they had to be recorded after 1962 a sharp decline, but which is flattened since 1975.
Attractions
- Church of Saint John the Baptist from the 12th/13th. Century. Was structurally changed greatly in the 15th and 19th centuries.
- Castle Varaignes from the 13th and 16th centuries. Houses a workshop and museum of weaving and the native slipper industry ( Charentaises ).
- The church of Saint -Jean -Baptiste
- A church window
- The entrance portal
- The pulpit
Events
Every year on November 11, there is a well-known, carnival -like Truthühnermarkt in Varaignes. On this occasion, the two brotherhoods from Varaignes and from Licques in northern France meet.