The Aunis (in Saintongeais Aulni ) is a old province historical of France. Its name would come, according to certain historians of the Alains, people Barbare which invade the Gaulle into 406; for others, they would be Aulne S, Arbre S very frequent in these places.

In fact the most probable origin is that of the village of Aulnay (Aulnay saintongeais some) which was much more important with the Moyen-âge than today. Aulnay made border between Santons and Pictons. Little by little the province was reduced until being located far from Aulnay. It is the smallest French province.

The first capital was Châtelaillon (today Châtelaillon-Beach), indicated under the name of Castrum Allionis (castle of Aunis), then it was transferred to La Rochelle. It extended from the Marais poitevin in North, during Charente in the South.

Opposite the Ile de Ré, Aunis had an influence of forty kilometers inside the grounds for an extension from roughly 50 to 55 km of North to the South.

Taking into account its surface and its number of inhabitants of the time, and in spite of the resistance of its inhabitants and deputies, it was associated in 1790 with most of the Saintonge to form today the department of the Charente-Maritime.

The Gentilé of Aunis is Aunisien .

Geography

Aunis is delimited by two coastal rivers, the Niort Sèvre in North, and the Charente, in the South. It is bathed in the West by the Atlantic Ocean and includes/understands two islands, the Ile de Ré and the island of Aix. To the East, it is limited by the valley of the Mignon), affluent of Sèvre Niort, by the heights of Saintonge around Saint-Felix, by the valley of the Trézence, then that of the Boutonne).

Aunis is a large calcareous plate of the Jurassic time . In the faults of this plate, of large brackish water marsh developed.

In agriculture, the two principal resources are the cereals (corn, corn) and the vine, although this one was very touched by the crisis of the Phylloxéra. One finds there also the breeding of milch cows. In the marshes, the harvest of the salt made the fortune of the area for a long time.

Aunis does not have an industrial tradition, and it is only at the end of the 19th century that some factories of transformation were established with La Rochelle (canning facilities, production of manure), with Surgères (dairy, metallurgy) and with Rochefort (aeronautical).

History

Aunis ( Latin Alunitium in ) inhabited, as well as the Saintonge, by the Santones, was included/understood by the Romains in the Aquitaine second. It belonged then successively to the Visigoths, the Francs (507), and depended a long time on the Poitou.

It was occupied in 1130 by the duke of Aquitaine Guillaume X, carried in dowry by Aliénor of Aquitaine to Louis VII, then, after divorce of this princess, to Henri II, king d' Angleterre. It was removed with the English by Louis VIII in 1224, was restored to them in 1360 by Jean II, but shook their yoke in 1371 to be given to the king de France Charles V.

The Réforme was introduced there as of the time of and became very powerful there: Aunis was the last rampart of the resistance of the party, which succumbed only with La Rochelle in 1628.

Principal monuments

With La Rochelle:
  • the turns Saint Nicolas's Day, of the Chain, of the Lantern (or of the Four Sergeants).
  • the town hall Rebirth.

With Surgères:

  • the Romance church Notre-Dame de Surgères

With Rochefort:

  • royal Rope manufacture.

Partial source

External bonds

  • history of Aunis by the files old (database of 300.000 patronyms and place names)

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