Charroux (Allier)

Charroux is a commune with 386 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2011 ) in the department of Allier in the Auvergne region. It belongs to the district of the canton of Moulins and Chantelle and is known as one of the plus beaux villages de France ( most beautiful villages in France ) classified.

3.1 Churches of Charroux
3.2 gates

Geography

The village is located on a limestone plateau on the northeastern edge of the Massif Central, and offers a panoramic view of the surroundings. The city of Vichy is located about 20 kilometers east ( straight line ).

History

In early settlement of the plateau indicate archaeological finds of the late Bronze Age, which today are mainly located in the Musée Anne de Beaujeu in Moulins, including an artistically high-quality bronze jewelry whose connection of a wheel cross was interpreted with a segment of a circle as a representation of the sun gear with the solar bark. Comparable finds from the Roman period have not survived, but the square floor plan of the settlement and proximity to an old Road are considered indicators that the investment of a Gallo -Roman oppidum, as testifying to the name Charroux, medieval Latin, inter alia, in the forms Carofium ( 1287 ) and Carrotum (1322 ) on Latin quadrivium ( " four-way, crossover ," spätlat. quarrogium ) attempted due.

1245 gave Archambault IX. Bourbon of his " city " Charroux (ma vile de Charrox ) and its citizens ( borjois ) special liberties. Definition of the scope of this franchise eight stone crosses listed with their locations in the document have been established. From one of these eight crosses, the "on the Ancient Road " or " cattle market " (ou toral ) was prepared and was only terminated in the course of the French Revolution in 1793, was 1982 a significant remnant of the Crucifixus and the inscription IHS again be found, which located in the City Museum of Charroux and is the oldest datable cross of this kind in Bourbonnais.

Charroux was fortified in the Middle Ages with two walls and eight city gates, of which only remains one of the walls and two gates have received. The city was ravaged by a plague in 1412 and 1422 for several years by the plague. During the uprising of Praguerie of 1440, when the Duke of Bourbon was the rebellious nobles on the side of the Dauphin against King Charles VII, Jacques I de Chabannes was besieged by the troops of Charles VII in Charroux and the fortress after taking allegedly for fifteen days plundered by the Royal. 1586 Charroux was sacked again sacked and razed the walls and gates, as a Huguenot troops to the battle victoriously passed near the hamlet of cognate Gannat near the villages, churches and monasteries ravaged before they moved into the Berry. As 1576 also Henry I, Prince of Condé, marched against Charroux after ingestion of Vichy with his mercenaries, had the city that had not yet restored its fortifications, surrender without a fight and freely buy from again plunder.

1662 was the Bourbonnais in possession of Louis II de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, on which a cabin maintained in Charroux ( now a hotel). The history of Charroux during the French Revolution is extensively documented in the Musée de Charroux et de son Canton and in the archives in the mayor's office ( Mairie ).

In the 19th century there was a small station at Charroux. However, the location away from other roads led to a continuous decline and population decline from the time of the Revolution still 1300 today about 320 The craft, which had previously been a special focus in the tanning and leather processing and benefits from the requirements of the local garrisons, experienced a decline, so that in 1842 by 32 former tanneries only one was left. Charroux survived as a rural village embossed and sought since the 1970s, new development opportunities in tourism. Many historic homes are now holiday homes and several individuals and clubs endeavor to revive the place.

Demographics

Attractions

Churches of Charroux

Charoux possessed in the Middle Ages two parishes and parish churches, one of which, St. Jean -Baptiste, the Archdiocese of Clermont belonged and the Commandery of Knights Templar of La Marche ( Nièvre) under stood, while the other, St. Sébastien belonged to the archbishopric of Bourges and the Priory of Saint- Germain -de- Salles shelter.

Added to this was in the parish of St. Jean -Baptiste church of the Knights Templar of La Marche, further comprising, before the inner city wall, a Commandery of St. Anthony, also known as Hospital, which was later abandoned and converted into a convent for Benedictine nuns.

In the kingdom of the damages caused by misunderstandings and confusion legends of later historical writing, however, include narratives from a place of also outside the city Abbey called le Pérou or la Peyrouse, latin allegedly Abbatia Petrosa that on a " rocky " plateau five hundred meters from the city already in the early Middle Ages was founded by Benedictine monks from Menat (Puy -de- Dôme) or from the famous abbey Aquitaine Charroux in Poitou-Charentes and continued to exist until its destruction during the French Revolution. One legend is that Pope Urban II visited in 1096 Charroux and consecrated an altar there: This process, of 10 January 1096 is well documented, but for the Aquitanian Charroux, not for in Bourbonnais.

The Parish Church of St -Sébastien in 1793 transferred to state ownership and sold, it is today, not like the two Ordensbauten obtained. St. Jean -Baptiste, however, was preserved in its function and it is now one of the main attractions for tourism. It is one of two rows divided into five pillars three-aisled building whose choir and apse still partially from the 12th/13th. Century date, and has the late Romanesque and Gothic styles. After a collapse of the vault in 1742 found from 1766 to 1768 major renovations tired. Between 1950 and 1954 construction work on the discharge of the pillars of the transept and in support of the vault were carried out. The fourteenth century the transept patch tower is octagonal forms with his since the collapse of the largest part of the tip decreased stump the landmark of Charroux.