Luçon

Luçon is a West commune with 9536 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2011 ) in the department of Vendée in the Pays de la Loire.

Location

Luçon is located approximately 10 meters above sea level. inst and about 22 kilometers from the Atlantic shore at L' Aiguillon- sur -Mer in the flat landscape of the Vendée. The port cities of La Rochelle and Les Sables d'Olonne are within a distance of about 42 km ( driving distance ) in the south and 50 km to the west. Luçon has a station on the railway line Nantes- Bordeaux.

Demographics

In the first census in France in 1793 Luçon had just over 2,000 residents; since then is a steady - recorded population growth - mainly zurückzuführender on immigration from rural areas: the mid-19th century, there were over 5,000 and a hundred years later about 7,400 inhabitants.

Economy

Formerly there were those who depend on agriculture around craftsmen and traders who transported the prosperity of the city. Today, there are a good infrastructure as well as the expulsion of several industrial parks ( zones or industrial zones économiques ), in which over a hundred small and medium-sized companies have settled, which provide for the creation of jobs.

History

As the name suggests the association of municipalities né Pays de la mer, Luçon is a city ' born of the sea' from. As early as the 7th century founded the St. Philibert in close proximity to the sea a monastery, which was sacked several times in the 9th century by the Normans. In the 10th century abbey and a small port was built directly on the sea shore; whose monks laid with the help of drainage channels and the swampy surroundings dry. They were followed by farmers looking for fertile arable land, which gradually in the sanding area - in the late Middle Ages, there were already 14 kilometers that separated the city from the sea - plenty was available; this in turn was followed by artisans and merchants, who settled in the emerging and fast-growing city, for the Vendée wheat was later central and northern Europe exported to many parts of France.

In 1317, Pope John XXII. the main town and the intellectual and cultural center of the Bas -Poitou Ascended City to the seat of a bishop - then the former Romanesque abbey church rose to the rank of a cathedral and was renewed in the style of the late Gothic period. After the devastation during the Wars of Religion (1562-1598), the city experienced at the beginning of the 17th century, a period of prosperity under Cardinal Richelieu, who was ordained at the age of 21 years ( 1607) of Pope Paul V. Bishop of Luçon. From the events of the Catholic- royalist embossed Vendée Uprising (1793-1796), the city was largely spared.

Attractions

Notre- Dame-de- l'Assomption

Other

• With its many parks and gardens ( jardins romantiques ) is Luçon a ' Green City ' ( ville verte ), ideal for walks. Particularly worth seeing is the central Jardin Dumaine.
• From the 17th century the chapel of the former Ursuline convent dates ( Chapelle des Ursulines ), with its 33 -meter-long curved and painted wooden ceiling and its baroque main altar.
• The chapel of the 16th century - that is incurred in the Counter- Reformation - the Order of the Barefoot Carmelites ( Chapelle du Carmel ) but was built in the 19th century in style forms of the 13th century.
• The Château de Milles Souris (formerly Hôtel de Maura ) probably dates from the late 17th century; its main entrance seems to be inspired by the Baroque facade of the cathedral.
• The scale in the Revolution Cemetery ( Cimetière historique ) is a treasure trove for lovers historicist tombs of the 19th century.

Personalities

• Gaspard de Bernard de Marigny (* 1754 in Luçon, † 1794 in Combrand ); General on the part of the Vendée uprising.
• François Bon (* 1953 in Luçon ); writer
• François Bégaudeau ( * 1971 in Luçon ); Teacher, singer, writer, critic