Baronnies

Baronnies (more precisely: Les Baronnies ) is the historical name for a southern French countryside to the east and north of the Mont Ventoux.

Today is one of the largest part of the Baronnies Drome, the remainder to Vaucluse and Hautes -Alpes. The area covers about 2000 km ² (1999) only 22,000 inhabitants. Since the 17th century, especially the eastern parts of the Baronnies suffer due to the harsh living conditions among rural exodus that could be held up until the 1980s. Today, an increase in the population is observed particularly in the towns of Nyons, Buis- les- Baronnies, Mirabel- aux- Baronnies Faucon and Puyméras again.

In the 1990s, the idea was to set up a " Parc naturel régional of Baronnies ". 2003 were implemented by the regional parliaments feasibility studies commissioned in 2007 by the Drome region, the first required for the future Parc administrative structures ( " Syndicat Mixte " ) created

History

According to legend, drew Hannibal during the Second Punic War ( 218-201 BC) with his army and his elephants through the Baronnies. Later, the Romans settled here decommissioned soldiers as farmers. After the collapse of the Roman Empire the area was for centuries devastated by the Great Migration, the Saracens and marauding gangs. In the Middle Ages Baronnies belonged to the Empire. Large parts of the country were under the rule of the barons of Mévouillon who ruled around 300 years of Buis- les- Baronnies from. A family feud in 1125 led to a division of the area into an eastern and a western part, where the Lords of the West settled in Nyons and Baron de Montauban called - that division eventually resulted in the plural name of the area. Within a short time both strands family assumed their property to the Dauphin of Viennois, whose heirs in 1349, the French kings were.

Similar to the Luberon and the Baronnies were later a center of Protestantism, so that the country suffered greatly during the Wars of Religion. After two plague epidemics in 1629 and 1652 Baronnies were totally economically prostrate.

Places

Nyons and Buis- les- Baronnies are the historical centers of the country. Other major towns are Brantes, Faucon, Mirabel- aux- Baronnies, Mollans -sur -Ouvèze, Montbrun- les- Bains, La Motte- Chalancon, Orpierre, Puyméras, Rémuzat, Rousset -les -Vignes, Sainte- Jalle, Séderon and Venterol. Also is known to Aulan castle in Montbrun- les- Bains.

Economy

The main economic activities are agriculture and tourism. Nyons is a center of olive cultivation, the fruits harvested here was an Appellation d' Origine (AOC ) awarded as a protected designation of origin. In the western part of the Baronnies already expanded tourism, which should be further promoted with the establishment of the Parc naturel.