Laudun-l'Ardoise
Laudun- l'Ardoise is a commune with 5851 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2011 ) in the department of Gard in the Languedoc- Roussillon region. Until 1 February 2001, the municipality only Laudun said.
Geography
The town lies in the valley of the river Tave. Located in the outskirts of Laudun- l'Ardoise and Codolet the Céze flows into the Rhône. Simultaneously, the Rhone forms the border with the department of Vaucluse. The municipality is located in the wine growing region of Côte du Rhône Villages. It consists primarily of the capital Laudun and the town of L' Ardoise.
Laudun- l'Ardoise bordered to the north Bagnols -sur -Cèze, on the northeast by Orsan and Codolet, to the east by Caderousse ( Vaucluse ), to the southeast by Montfaucon and Saint- Geniès -de- Comolas, south to Saint -Laurent -des- Arbres, in the southwest of Saint -Victor- la -Coste and Saint -Paul -les- Fonts, on the west by Connaux and to the northwest by Tresques.
History
Before the foundation of the present-day village was at Laudun- l'Ardoise a Celtic settlement, which was probably abandoned in the 6th century AD. In the High Middle Ages, there were a total of three castles: one in the Sainte -Foy- hill, the Château de Lascours and the Château de Bord. At that time the village was surrounded by a small wall. The Chapel of Saint- Geniès today the cemetery chapel, was built as a parish church. While the first houses were rather in the hills, the village moved over the centuries continues down into the plain. In the first half of the 14th century, the Gothic church of Notre -Dame- la -Neuve was created. On the river Tave were numerous mills. In the 18th century, the religious community of the White Penitents built a chapel on the Sainte- Foy- hill.