Cailar

Cailar is a common French, located in the department of the Gard and the area Languedoc-Roussillon.

Geography

History

The site of dwelling of Cailar is very old. It is held currently archaeological excavations there putting at the day of many vestiges of Greek and Celtic influence, remarkable by their singularity, dating from Ve in IIIe century before JC. It also comprises another site of excavations, known as " clochettes" where was found prehistoric material. In the past, the village was closer to banks of the the Rhone (of which the bed varied with the centuries) and was almost at the edge of the sea, which one reached by a Lagune today ensablée. For memory, it is distant today of about fifteen kilometers as the crow flies (With the stranding, the littoral took on the sea which thus “moved away”)… This site privileged, added to its situation with the confluence of two rivers draining the back country, the Vistre and the Rhôny, makes of it a strategic place which will very early arouse an interest for the populations autochtones. In antiquity, it will undergo the Greek influence and rhodienne until becoming a small counter, i.e. a port intended for fishing and the commercial exchanges which will count nearly 5.000 inhabitants (against 2300 today approximately), from where quantitative importance of the found vestiges. Populated around the III century before J.C by the Volques Arécomiques, a celto-Germanic tribe, it will be subject to then the Latin influence. One does not count there any more the terminals and traces of Roman and Gallo-Roman presence in this area crossed at that time by the Via Domitia, one of the principal Roman ways of circulation. With the Middle Ages, the village, near to famous the Abbaye of Psalmody and located not far from Saint-Gilles (one of the high religious places of the time in France where Clément IV was born the pope) is on a road regularly borrowed by the pilgrims which goes to Saint Jacques de Compostelle. It is thus a notable site which one finds the trace in documents of VIIe century (Viguerie of Acute-Dead, diocese of Nimes, archpriest of Aimargues). The area will also at that time be subject to the influence of the Sarrazins, come from the south, which make regular raids there during more than one hundred years. On the other hand, she will know the consequences of the movements caused by Simon de Montfort in 1209 during the Albigensian Crusade which sees the lords of north taking the ascending one on those of the south. This military countryside signs the decline of the Maison Trencavel, whose the Viscount depends then on Nimes, on which itself Cailar depends. In 1212, Bermond d' Anduze take control and add of it to their titles that of " baron of Cailar". The feudal wars continue and, in 1382, the primitive castle is set fire to by Tuchin of Beaucaire. After various adventures, the stronghold will pass to XVIe century, by the play of alliances, in Baschy d' Aubais. With the revolution, there remain already only traces of the feudal castle, which was probably located at the site of the current arenas, on the culminating point of the village and which was destroyed definitively by the Prince de Condé in 1628 during the wars of religion. Only the name of this one (which comes from castellum = castle, transformed into Cailus, Cayla, Chayla, Quila while occitant and finally Cailar) will have the memory of this important fortified town. After the First World War will follow one period of relative decline which will see the population of the village falling to approximately 1000 people in the years 1960, in particular because of the great wine crises of the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th, to go up since thanks to a new economic dash due in particular to the rise of tourism of mass.

Administration

Demography

Places and monuments

The village still comprises a very beautiful Romance church of which certain parts date from the XI and XVII century (the church St Etienne from Cailar indeed was burnt several times, in particular during the Guerre of the camisards, in 1705 by the chief Camisard " Catinat ", then rebuilt). Saint-Louis was probably collected there into 1248 before its departure towards the port of Acute-Dead and the 7th Croisade. It is classified with the inventory of the historic buildings as well as the arenas for plays taurins (the " races camarguaises" in particular), very typical of the area. The Marie is installed in a building of the XVIIIe century, old barracks of the dragons of the King. She was built at the beginning of the XVIII, following the Guerre of Camisards to help with " pacifier" the area. The village also obtained an indication out of the commun run, carried out under the impulse of the Foundation of France and conceived by the painter François Boisrond, it " signale" the presence of the various trade of the village.

Among the places to quote, as curiosity, several tombs of a special character appear. It is, indeed, of the bulls jingoists which rest there, the population of the village having decided to honor their exceptional qualities of bravery at the time of their participations in the races camarguaises. Most visible of the bull the Wild boar is that, of the Manade Fernand Granon (years 1920-30), which throne at the entry of the village. More discrete, fall it from the bull the Cossack , of the herd Lafont (years 1950), is in near.

In the village, one also finds a maisonnette property of the Baroncelli-Aubanel family, which was, with the Marquis Jacques de Baroncelli in particular, one of the important families of the small Camargue. Outside the village, one sees the Tower of Anglas, old tower of granting in the direction of the sea, dating the XIV century which is very well restored. It owes its name to the count François-Antoine de Boissy d' Anglas, noble of Protestant origin and figure of the French revolution. One also notes the presence of the farmhouse " Hourtès" , old property of Marie-Laure de Noailles, which comprises many remarkable decorative elements, of which, inter alia, a canopy carried out by the sculptor César and of the tapestries signed art and kraft William Morris. It is currently the residence of the former manadier Jean Lafont, which one can see, not far from there, the future Mausolée , sculpture of the artist Jean-Michel Othoniel with whom one owes the entry of the Parisian subway station Palate-Royal-Museum of Louvre.

In addition to the monuments, the site is particularly remarkable by its exceptional situation in the small Camargue and the preserved aspect of its neighborhoods, divided between the meadows where feed the wild bulls and horses and the marshes (marsh of Souteyranne for example) with the flora and very diversified fauna. It is in Cailar that appeared, at the 19th century, the first herds (herds of breeding in semi freedom) of bulls exclusively reserved for the Course camarguaise. This practice developed thanks to the survival of a feudal right, the " right of esplèche " : a pleasure on a purely gracious basis of the not cultivated grounds, by the inhabitants of the village, to make there feed the herds. It is today still the village which comprises the greatest number of these prestigious breedings, from where its nickname of Capitale of the small Camargue .

With the passing of years, from many scenario writers came to benefit from these multiple assets, with, in their wake, of the actors such as: Alain Delon, Charles Vanel, Pierre Clémenti, Carole Bouquet, Gerard Depardieu… Sensitive to the charm of the village, several personalities of arts and the culture also reside part of the year there, among them: Sophie Calle, Pierre Combescot, Hector Bianciotti, Yann Dumoget, Jean Lafont…

See too

Common of Gard
the Community of communes of the Small-Camargue

External bonds

Cailar on the site of the national geographical Institute
Cailar on the site of INSEE
Cailar on the site of Quid
Localization of Cailar on a chart of France and communes bordering
Plane on Cailar on Mapquest

Inter-commune school of music of the small Camargue http://ecolmusicamargue.free.fr

Cailar in Video festival
Cailar in images

Sporting Cailaren Club - http://scailaren.free.fr

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