Bram (Aude)
Bram is a commune with 3368 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2011 ) in the Aude department of southern French region of Languedoc -Roussillon.
Location
Bram is on a hill in the southeast of the landscape of Lauragais, about 75 km ( driving distance ) south-east of Toulouse and 16 kilometers from Castelnaudary. Up to Carcassonne is some 20 kilometers to the east. Bram has a highway connection to the A61 and a railway station on the route between Bordeaux and Sète. The municipality is crossed by the river Fresquel, and by the parallel Canal du Midi.
Demographics
In the Middle Ages Bram was an important town with over 1,000 inhabitants.
Economy
As in most places of Lauragais (also Pays de la Cocagne = " Cockaigne " called ) played the cultivation, processing and trade of dyer's woad ( pastel) in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period an important role in the economy of the wealthy city. But already in the 18th century, the cultivation was abandoned by pastel - it was gradually supplanted by the new, produced from the indigo plant and mostly grown in the American colonies indigo dye from the market. Since then, the farmers of cereals ( wheat, corn, sunflower) and a bit of livestock ( sheep) had to go feed the Lauragais.
History
The name of the community is likely to derive from the Latin Eburomagus, a company founded by the Romans in the year 60 BC settlement, from which one does not know whether it has spread only in the valleys around the area or extends to the hill itself has. In the vicinity of the place as various small finds from Gallo-Roman period (4th - 6th century) were made.
In the 12th century the new Bram was built on a hill with a completely regular circuit structure consisting of three roads with the adjacent houses and a central square in the middle, on the soon the church of the village was built. There was only one gate in the east; the whole system thus had a clear defense Chara hangover. During this time, most of the residents of Bram turned to the Katharerglauben; thus the place became known to the Crusaders of the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229) and was captured in 1210 after a three- day siege by the troops of Simon de Montfort. While most residents returned to the bosom of the Roman Church and unpunished, he had 100 stubborn heretics nose and your upper lip and tear out his eyes; one he had one eye, so that he could accompany the other for a good 30 kilometers away Lastours, the next target of the Crusaders.
About the time of the Hundred Years' War (1347-1463) and the religious unrest of the 16th century is not known. In the 17th century the city experienced any case its commercial peak - the Canal du Midi was built nearby, and new houses were now also built outside the town walls.
Attractions
- Main attraction of Bram is the circular enclosed medieval town, which only on aerial photographs is, however, correct recognizable.
- The apse and located on the north side of the church, stocky -looking bell tower of the Église Saint -Julien et Sainte- Basilisse be attributed to the late 13th century; both of which are classified as a monument historique since 1932. However, large parts of the nave date from the 17th century; In the 19th century the church was extended by two bays to the west, so that the gothic -looking rose window and the portal of the west facade have nothing to do with the original condition. The interior is a single nave with side chapels and wide arches, resting on a wooden roof sheathing; the late Gothic apse is vaulted rip it. The painting was placed after the extension of the building in the 19th century. The recognition of the nave as a monument historique took place in 1987.
- A device fitted to a private home plaque from 1632 commemorates the residence of Louis XIII. in Bram. Also, it is registered as a monument historique since 1930.
- In place two small chapels are ( Chapelle Notre- Dame de Chapelle de l' Assomption and Mercy ) in neo-Gothic and neo-classical style of the 19th century.
- Located at the foot of the village museum Eburomagus shows a variety of exhibits from antiquity and the Middle Ages.
- Just four km ( driving distance ) north of Bram, the Château de Lordat, a manor house dating from the 18th century with a geometrically arranged garden in the French style rises.
- One kilometer further is a former palace belonging to the estate with a dovecot ( pigeon ) from the 18th century.