Mornant

Mornant is a common French, located in the department of the the Rhone and the area the Rhone-Alps.

Geography

Mornant is a commune whose population borders 5000 inhabitants, located in the department of the Rhone at 24 kilometers at the South-west of Lyon. Its surface is of 1576 hectares. With the foot of the edge Is Massif Central, Mornant developed on a plate of an average altitude of 370 Mr., dominating the valley of the Rhone.

Relief

Located at the South of the Mounts of the Lyonese, on the Eastern buttresses of the Massif Central, the commune is characterized by a complex relief of an average altitude of 370 m, marked by many ruptures created by the hydrographic network. Mornantet constitutes the strongest cut in the territory according to a South-eastern North-western line: - to the North-East, the plate goes down moderately in direction from Jonan, - in South-west, the plate is still redécoupé by the two deep furrows of Condamine and Fondagny.

Geology and pedology

The plate on which Mornant was established, is a unit made up of homogeneous crystalline grounds primarily composed of gneiss. However, of vast harder granitic ellipses can appear: it is they which then determine partially the forms in relief, the undulations with large radius of curvature released by linear cutting. This vast “scouring” largely prepared by tectonics (multiples faults “chopping” crumpling hercynien with the foot of the Mounts of the Lyonese) gave rise to true a glacis, glacis of erosion especially in the West of a Vernay-Large line Pavière, glacis of accumulation in the East of this line with a progressive filling of the funds of small valleys (moors of Montagny, Chassagny, Taluyers) giving rise to a vast alluvial and wet plain. Colluviums ennoient that and there rock chicots, this is particularly sensitive in topography (“calm” appearance of the layout of the level lines).

Hydrography

Mornant is drained by the brooks of Fondagny, Corsenat and Condamine, like by the rivers of Mornantet and its affluent Jonan

History

As certain vestiges testify some, the area of Mornant was to be inhabited as of the Gallic time and even, can be, before since it is necessary to announce a unit megalithic located in the middle of a field to the hamlet of Luet (the unit could go back to - 3000, but certain specialists doubt owing to the fact that it is about a dolmen). The Romans, during the reign of Hadrian (beginning of IIe century after J.C.), built an aqueduct which, coming from Pilat brought water to Lyon. The aqueduct of Gier crosses the commune of Mornant of the South to North over a 6,4 kilometers length. Almost entirely underground, it arose with the free air to cross five valleys by bridges. Today, one can still see the vestiges of 3 of these bridges: - The bridge on Mornantet which is the most important vestige and which was the subject of a development (it is also the only one which is protected under the Historic buildings). - The bridge of Corsenat - The bridge of Condamine. After the cruel invasions, Burgondes occupied the area. An abbey was built in Monteclare. It was destroyed towards 855, at the time of the wars which opposed the heirs to Charlemagne. If one believes of it a document dated from Xe century approximately, the borough of Mornant was defended at that time by a strengthened enclosure which would have been built with the stones of the abbey. The urban form of the center borough, the provision of the houses around the church indicates the layout of it. The rampart was bordered of ditches whose memory was maintained in the street names of the Small-Composts and the street of the Ditches. The castle which united the church in the North-West was demolished about 1910. Vestiges of the fortification are still visible: - The tower of Vingtain which is a square keep. It presents a beautiful stone equipment reinforced by chains of angle. It is registered with the additional inventory of the historic buildings. - A side of rampart, built out of hardcores, reinforced by a chain of angle gripped, with the angle of the street of the Ditches and street Carémi. For the center old borough, it is necessary to note the presence of many houses which are still the testimony of the last centuries. One can thus find houses going back to XVe century. A new church of ogival style was built in XVe century. She knew many modifications during the centuries until the XIXe century (the bell-tower, for example, was rebuilt at the XVIIIe century). The Master furnace bridge, as well as the retables located in the side chapels were worth to him to be registered with the inventory of the historic buildings. In the middle of the XIXe century, Mornant knew a kind of apogee. It counted then nearly 2500 inhabitants. Local industry occupied half of the population in the manufacture of felt hats, the weaving of velvet by the silk workers, the embroidery with the needle. Agriculture was in full prosperity and made live the other half of the population: the vine, with it only occupied more than 400 hectares… The Town hall was then built (1860-1861) in limit of the old part of the center borough. In 1880, the invasion of will phylloxéra destroyed the major part of the vineyard and, at the end of the XIXe century, local industry disappeared under the attacks from big industry. The Great War made a bleeding with white in the youth of Mornant. In 1920, Mornant counted nothing any more but 1614 inhabitants… Since the end of the last war, the commune makes new great strides.

Administration

Demography

Places and monuments

Personalities related to the commune

Etienne Mulsant: Entomologist

See too

Common of the Rhone

External bonds

official municipal Site
Mornant on the site of the national geographical Institute
Mornant on the site of INSEE
Mornant on the site of Quid
Localization of Mornant on a chart of France and communes bordering
Plane on Mornant on Mapquest

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