Lauragais

The Lauragais or Lauraguais ( Occitan: Lauragués ) is the name of a region in southwest France, south-east of Toulouse. The area is in France under the term Pays de Cocagne ( " land of plenty " ) is known. Geographical center and capital of Lauragais is the town of Castelnaudary.

Geography

Location

The Lauragais extends over an area of ​​about 2400 square kilometers between the suburbs of Toulouse and Fanjeaux west of Carcassonne along the former Via Aquitania, the Canal du Midi, the Autoroute A61 and the Route nationale 113, and thus consists of parts of the departments of Ariege, Aude, Haute -Garonne and Tarn.

Landscape

The Lauragais is a wide - interspersed with smaller elevations - plane which is bounded by the mountains of La Piège, Montagne Noire and Cabardès. In the west the Lauragais ends at the watershed between the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean at Seuil de Naurouze. The landscape is mostly slightly wavy profile with maximum elevations of about 300 meters above sea level. inst; only in the far north, on the border with Montagne noire ( cf. Arfons ), the landscape is mountainous, reaching heights of over 800 meters above sea level. inst.

Larger rivers do not exist in Lauragais. The scenery, however, interspersed with smaller channels ( Rigoles ) that supply the Canal du Midi with water.

Climate

The climate is Mediterranean. The summer daytime temperatures often reach 30 ° C and more. In winter, snowfall or night frosts are great exceptions.

History

The name comes from the castle LAURAC near the town of the same south-east of Castelnaudary. First mentioned in 1070, the land after the Albigensian Crusade ( 1209-1229 ) by Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse, was acquired and was - like the rest of the county - in 1271 in the royal domain ( Domaine royal) integrated. After King Louis XI. the Lauragais had 1477 payable to the La Tour d' Auvergne to the county, it went through the marriage of Countess Catherine de Medici with the future King Henry II in October 1533, the Domaine royal back. The Queen reached in 1553 the creation of a Sénéchaussée by elimination of Toulouse, Castelnaudary which was the seat of regional government.

In the period from about 1450 to 1550 the Lauragais was next to Thuringia one of the two main growing areas of Pastel ( isatis tinctoria ) in Europe and in this time Toulouse, where the Pastel wholesalers had their seat, the Pastel over Bordeaux in many countries exported, helped to untold wealth. As of 1550, the Pastel was gradually introduced from Asia by the plants of the genus Indigofera, Indigofera tinctoria in particular through the supplanted, since they have a much larger amount of the dye indigo. This led to the temporary economic decline of Toulouse, especially in the 17th century.

The territory of Lauraigais is described by the elections to the Estates General of 1789 exactly. The administrative reforms of the Revolution divided the territory in two - later resolved - arrondissement on, in the arrondissement Castelnaudary and the arrondissement of Villefranche-de -Lauragais.

Economy

The soil was in Lauragais are fertile and easy to edit, so that grown in the main wheat; about 100 to 150 years ago came the cultivation of corn and the wine has its place. In addition, ( pastel) was in the Middle Ages and in early modern times a large area cultivated woad with which you brought a blue coloration of substances into existence. The molded into balls end products of the finishing process ( grinding, washing, drying) of Pastel made ​​the area around Toulouse to the gradual emergence of the indigo plant in the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries pronounced wealthy - hence the 'Pays de Cocagne.

Attractions

The Lauragais has no sights of paramount importance if one of the - apart Canal du Midi - certified UNESCO World Heritage Site. Interesting and full of history and stories about the Albigensian movement, however, the - built mostly on natural elevations - Locations:

  • Avignonet- Lauragais
  • Bram ( Aude)
  • Castelnaudary
  • Fanjeaux
  • LAURAC
  • Montreal ( Aude)
  • Mas -Saintes - Puelles
  • Saint- Félix- Lauragais
  • Saint- Papoul
  • Villasavary
  • Villefranche -de- Lauragais
Cockaigne A61 autoroute Crown lands of France Louis XI of France Henry II of France Catharism Avignonet-Lauragais Bram (Aude) Mas-Saintes-Puelles Villefranche-de-Lauragais
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