Rouergue

Rouergue ( Occitan: Roergue ) is a former French province and county, whose key component was the County of Rodez. It corresponds roughly to the present-day department of Aveyron in the province of Midi-Pyrenees. The Rouergue province was 9007 square kilometers. In the 1999 census lived on this territory 269 774 inhabitants, which corresponds to a population density of only 30 people per square kilometer. The largest towns are Rodez (approx. 24,000 inhabitants), Millau (approx. 22,000 inhabitants), Villefranche -de- Rouergue ( 12,000 inhabitants) and Decazeville (approx. 6,000 inhabitants).

Geography

Location

The Rouergue is bounded to the north of the Auvergne, in the south and southwest of the Languedoc, in the east by Gévaudan and on the west by Quercy. Their capital city was Rodez.

Landscape

The landscape is hilly, with average elevations of about 400 to 600 meters; in the north and in the east ( near Millau ) and heights of over 1000 meters can be achieved. While large areas are forested to the north and west, the eastern parts of the Rouergue are rather scarcely wooded and steppe because of its karst soils. The most important river is the Aveyron, which forms the border between the Rouergue and Quercy Lying west in its lower reaches. The south of the Rouergue is dominated by the upper reaches of the Tarn River and its tributaries.

Climate

Due to its proximity to the Massif Central, the summer temperatures in the Rouergue rarely reach above 30 ° C. In winter, frosts are common, although the daytime temperatures are about 10 ° C.

Economy

The Rouerdue has always been dominated by agriculture, with the West -dominated field and forestry, while sheep were kept at the karstic soils of the Causses in the east.

History

Some testimonies of prehistoric times have survived: these include above all the extraordinary Statuenmenhire whose dating among researchers is highly controversial. A beautiful collection of these stones is located in the Musée Fenaille in Rodez. Some megalithic dolmens have been preserved in the western Rouergue ( at Villefranche ), but most are destroyed due to the limestone material used.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Rouergue often changed the ruler: it fell to 472, the Visigoths, the Franks in 507, 512 back to the Visigoths and 533 at Austrasia. In the year 588 the country came to the Duchy of Aquitaine, which it Pepin the Short 768 took off again. Charlemagne, it added 778 the Kingdom of Aquitaine added and set a count that enforced the heritability of the title in the sequence. Middle of the 9th century, confirmed Charles the Bald, the counts of Rouergue in their possession and inflicting the county Toulouse added that he broke out of the Duchy of Aquitaine. In the year 918 were Raimund II († 923 ) and I. Armengol, the sons of Count Odo, in the possession of Toulouse or of Rouergue. Armengols son Raimund I. († 961/961 ) was 936 even Duke of Aquitaine.

Upon the death of Count Hugo ( 1053 ), grandson of Raymond I., his daughter Bertha had to fight for their heritage with Count William IV of Toulouse and his brother Raymond of Saint- Gilles. When Bertha died in 1065, the brothers turned against each other, and agreed only after 15 years of struggle that William Toulouse and Rouergue Raimund should get. After William's death ( 1094 ) Raimund followed in Toulouse and Rouergue became the appanage of the sons of men Tolosan. Raymond died in 1105 in Palestine, and left with Alfonso -Jordan a minor son. Ramon Berenguer III. , Count of Barcelona and Viscount of Millau, and William VII, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou fell, armed in Toulouse and Rouergue. Alfons withdrew to Provence and received his two counties only in 1120 again. They remained in the possession of the Counts of Toulouse, until they fell with the death of Joan, wife of Alfonso of France, Count of Poitou, in 1271 to the Crown.

While the region has been affected by katharischem thought only little, played in the 16th and 17th century Protestantism an important role, but with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1598 ) by the Edict of Fontainebleau ( 1685) found an end. Many Huguenots left as a result the country.

In 1779 the Rouergue was annexed to the Quercy and the newly established province of Haute -Guyenne. In the wake of the French Revolution (1790 ) the area was converted into the Aveyron region, named after the largest river in the region, the Aveyron. As the Tarn- et- Garonne was formed in 1808, the extreme western part of the Rouergue was separated and added to the new department.

Attractions

The varied landscape of Rouergue are suitable for short or long walks. Some of the Most Beautiful Villages of France ( Belcastel, Brousse- le -Château, Conques, La Couvertoirade Estaing, Najac, Peyre, Saint -Côme d'Olt - Sainte -Eulalie d'Olt - and Sauveterre -de- Rouergue ) are also in the Rouergue. Cultural highlights include the Romanesque Abbey of Ste -Foy de Conques, the Cistercian monastery of Beaulieu -en- Rouergue and Rodez Cathedral.

Pictures

Conques

Brousse- le -Château in the Tarn

Belcastel (Aveyron )

Transept and ambulatory of the abbey Ste -Foy de Conques

Transept and choir of the Cistercian monastery of Beaulieu -en- Rouergue

Choir and choir of the Cathedral of Rodez

Chapel of the Black Penitents in Villefranche -de- Rouergue