Sérignan

Sérignan is a common French, located in the department of the Herault and the area Languedoc-Roussillon. She is written Serinhan in Occitan.

Geography

Sérignan is a commune located in the Biterrois, in the Languedocien plain, in the south of Béziers.

The communal territory is bordered by Portiragnes, Villeneuve-the-Béziers, Sauvian, Vendres and Valras-Beach and in South-east by the Mediterranean.

The territory is divided in 4 sectors:

agglomeration around the Sérignan Old man, limited to north by the Orb.
the littoral made up of a great natural zone protected by the academy from the littoral on more than 220 hectares with a single dune cord as well by its height as its width and a splendid sand beach end, and of an tourist area where the camp-sites are established.
Sérignan Port, on Right Bank of the river Orb, is a marina. This one been the subject of a great project of installation led by the architect Jean Nouvel.
the plain, rich in alluvia, profits from an agricultural vocation, dominated by the Viticulture.

Since the years 1970, the commune covered many allotments. Thus, Sérignan knew a demographic Net rise, becoming the most populated commune Biterrois. The phenomenon of Périurbanisation is particularly sensitive to Sérignan, with the effects induced in the landscape (allotments, retail park, college, routes transportation towards Béziers) and a strong land pressure. The pendular migrations are important, making of Sérignan a " village-dortoir" for populations which work mainly in Béziers.

Along the border of the commune with Valras-Beach, to benefit from the repercussions of estival tourism, the camp-sites get considerable economic resources.

History

Sérignan is marked by 2.000 years of history.

Administration

Demography

Places and monuments

Collegial Notre Dame de Grâce : The construction of this listed monument spread out of XIIe in XVe century. Its Bell-tower, imposing 30 height meters tower, evokes more the warlike Donjon than the religious building. A Mâchicoulis protecting beautiful a Portail with the Romance curves reinforces the first military impression released by the frontage. As often in the churches, the Vitraux of Our-Lady-of-Grace are the elements which suffered the most from the ravages of time. Many was replaced during the centuries. Opened by 7 high mullioned windows, the Abside presents a whole of stained glasses carried out by the workshops of Mauvernay and posed in 1879.

streets and typical places of the South : The streets of Sérignan abound in this Archéologie of the memory. To the 58, at the entry of a small dead end, one can cross a porch before reaching a beautiful door of Renaissance time. Carriéra de Saint Roch, “street Roch Saint”: in this street, which bore the name of patron saint of Sérignan, the frontages of certain houses sheltered in the niches of the statues of the saint.

Beaches : Sérignan chose the soft manner to maintain in its natural state this fragile inheritance. The installation of Ganivelle S in chestnut to trap the Sand, the creation of footbridges transdunaires to avoid trampling, the conservation of the flora of the Dune S (Sea reed, Camomile, blue thistle, Immortal, blanquette…) to stabilize sand were always preferred with hard” and more expensive matters more the “. The dunes thus rehabilitated can reach up to 8 meters height, which constitutes a record in Languedoc-Roussillon. With the back, a discrete network of pedestrian paths which skirts here and there of the " rondines" and of the " gourgues" of Salicorne S and Tamaris, allows to discover the exceptional site of the Orpellières and the Grande Mayor .

the museum of Sérignan : Located in the middle of the center town, the museum of Sérignan, inaugurated on September 23rd, 2006, is devoted to the art of our time. Symbol of the cultural dynamics of the City, it is the first museum of contemporary art of Herault. On nearly 2.500 m2, the museum presents a permanent collection (Paysagisme Abstrait, Conceptual art, Supports/Surfaces, Figuration Narrative, current artistic scene…) composed mainly of gifts of artists and the temporary exhibitions. It offers an privileged access with works in various spaces: cabinet of graphic arts, spaces of exposure, video room, experimental windows, living room-library, bookstore-shop. The museum proposes a great number of activities bound for all the public ones: visits with accompanying notes, conferences, one Thursday/a work, workshops for the children, my birthday with the museum… Practical informations: Opened 10:00 at 18:00 except Monday and bank holidays. Tariffs: 5 € normal tariff, 3 € cheap rate. Exemption from payment: chart holders passes culture (inhabitants of Sérignan, Villeneuve-the-Béziers, Vias), students in art and architecture, less than 12 years. Visits with accompanying notes: every saturday with 15:00 - and during the summer every Wednesday with 11:00. Visits with accompanying notes for the groups on go (cheap rate for the groups of more than 15 people). The museum of sérignan. 146 avenue de la Plage. 34410 Sérignan. Tel.: +33 (0) 4 67 32 33 05. lemusee@ville-serignan.fr www.ville-serignan.fr

Cigalière theater, encircled by columns of Daniel Buren.

the field protected from Orpellières
Sérignan-Beach and the Mayor
the Orb (river)
the castle of Sérignan : The Château was drawn up in the center of the village. One is unaware of on which date it was built, but it is probable that its construction was contemporary among that of the ramparts. It belonged to the family of the lords of Sérignan and changed several times of owners, according to the risks of the marriages between great lines. It is by error, following a confusion between Serviès-in-Valley and Sérignan, which one makes of Olivier de Termes the lord of this castle in 1262. In 1286, at the time of the dramatic episode of the unloading of the Admiral de Loria and of its Aragonese troops, the castle is devastated and set fire to. Rebuilt, it becomes, on January 5th, 1542, property of the Delort family - founder of the dynasty of the lords of Lort de Sérigan - by the marriage of Marguerite de Valras and Sérignan, with the rider Martin Delort.

But De Lort, secured by high positions which oblige them to reside in Béziers or Paris, deserts the castle which is not inhabited practically any more. At the beginning of the XVIIIe century, the lord gives up it with his farmers, who not use it like place of residence, but like agricultural farm building. In 1732, a mill with oil is installed in the old castle of which it does not remain, unfortunately, that few traces.

the House of Tourism
the Town hall

Animations - Festivals - Events

A very animated downtown area, from January to December:

the Gone three times per week.
the large fair with the Secondhand trade, 2nd Saturday of the month.
the market with the books of collection and the old postcards 3rd Sunday of the month.
the flower market.
the Carnival, 1st Saturday of April.
the festival of the Cartoon and the album youth, with Pentecost.
the festival of theater amateur, in June.
Of the festivals dedicated to the children, like the To taste Monsters (October 31st) and the passage of the Father Christmas at the end of December.
the Fair with the fats and the regional products, at the beginning of December.

Economy

tourism, first activity of the city

Sérignan, by the proximity and the quality of its Littoral cord , has a tourist vocation for a long time. The great sand beach end which is inserted gently in the sea allured the Biterrois in the first times of the balneal Tourisme. This development was particularly important on Right Bank of Orb, which will become thereafter the commune of Valras-Beach. On left bank, the grau of the Mayor - up to that point field of the fishermen also attracted many bathers, whereas the vine still occupied a big part of the ground to the back of the dune cord.

The Sixties knew the beginning of organized tourism, with the installation of the first camp-sites intended for the reception of the by far come populations. To install these establishments, of drillings in the Astienne tablecloth were necessary in order to be able to have drinking water. In parallel, was set up an original and ecological system of purification of the waste water, which authorized the development of a rare vegetation on this sector, by eliminating any rejection at the sea. The precursors of balneal tourism sérignanais tore off vines to gain space and to accommodate international customers. Thus, whereas the real great projects shaped on the littoral héraultais, under the impulse of the Mission of Installation, Sérignan and Sérignan-Beach continued their development through the camp-sites.

In the Seventies, at the request of a Naturist group of S and after a vast debate within the commune, as among the members of the parish was going to be born a complex Naturiste in seaside.

Today, Sérignan, offers on its banks right-hand side and left, more than 5000 sites of Campings, which represents a capacity of reception of almost 60000 people divided on a score of establishments. Those are equipped with modern infrastructures : parks of locatives, swimming pools with toboggans, tennis, restaurant, bar, mini-markets… and accommodate international customers. But of other forms of tourist lodging also developed, to answer the increasing demand of the customers. Thus, Sérignan counts it today many motels, furnished, summer camps, restaurants… In the same way, a certain number of holiday makers acquired or makes build houses on the commune in order to establish their second home there. Others, in order to profit from the particularly sunny climate, took the resolution to remain there at the year, thus contributing to the development of the commune. The municipality, in collaboration with the professionals of tourism, contributed for its part to this growth, by equipping the commune of infrastructures necessary to the reception of the holiday makers : tourist bureau installed in the buildings of the old town hall, rescue stations on the beach… Moreover, many animations : festivals, concerts, exposures, festival of the horse, Holy Roch and féria are proposed to the seasonal visitors, in order to diversify the already rich cultural offer suggested in the sector.

The marina of Sérignan offers a capacity of reception of more than 320 maritime rings and 60 wharves in river. It was created in 1971 and is managed by the Chamber of commerce and of industry of Béziers Saint-Pons.

In the next years, the development of Port Sérignan , a project of seaside resort of new generation imagined by the universally known architect Jean Nouvel, will give a new dash to the tourist development with Sérignan.

Sérignan offers thus to the holiday makers, the double attraction of a city authentic and preserved, which saw all the year, near a concerned seaside not urbanized of the respect of the Environnement. It is in this spirit that the Conservatoire of the littoral acquired of the grounds of the Orpellières , thus safeguarding the sea front of all future Urbanisation. From an economic point of view, tourism constitutes the main wealth of the commune.

Personalities related to the commune

Jean Gau (1902-1979): The passion of the sea

One cannot evoke the history of the single-handed sailors without speaking about Jean Gau, child of Sérignan, which marked the Navigation with veil of its many adventures which have occurred during crossings océanes. Born in Sérignan on February 18th, 1902, Jean Gau grew with the passion of the sea. Already, very young person, the studies importune it. He prefers outward journey to admire the horizon which merges with the sea. Very early attracted by the floods - more than by the vines - Jean Gau carried out his beginnings in the Atlantique, by a crossing of Valras to New York. His/her faithful companion “Atom”, which took the continuation of its first boat “Onda”, accompanied it most of his career, Polynesian islands with the the Caribbean, while passing by South America and while ending unfortunately up running, at the time of a memorable storm on the reefs of Bizerte in Tunisia. This Naufrage will put a term at the adventurous life of the marine , collected by miracle on this deserted coast by a shepherd, and brought back to civilization with back of ass, at the edge of exhaustion. This last adventure, in 1973, closes the maritime peregrinations of a man of exception on nearly 50 years. It is the end of an enthralling and unrestrained race around the sphere. Jean Gau liked to face the sea, his partner, and did not conceal itself with the engagements that it imposed to him through winds sometimes higher than 50 nodes, some 10 meters high blades, as at the time of a dantesque passage of the Cape Horn, that he reports in an enthusiastic and dramatic way. Each time he played his life, because solitary navigation has this of pitiless which it leaves no respite with the sailor. Obliged to monitor the blades which break on the bridge, the navigator can be carried constantly, if it is let go to drowsiness where if it sees too late a Cargo which crosses its road. Jean Gau made, at the time of his career, ten times the crossing of the Atlantic and twice the round the world tour. In New York, he worked in a restaurant to pay his boats and his crossings. As soon as it had joined together the sums necessary, it weighed the anchor and threw the mooring ropes for a new voyage. Also it sailed on all the seas of the world, happy to find with the liking of the chance, the friends in the nautical clubs at the time of its many stopovers.

Its Aventure is marked out meetings, discoveries, true and strong moments as only of the exploits out common can get it. Of modest nature, Jean Gau did not like to praise his crossings, which were connected more with personal searches with cruisings. However, his/her friends appreciated its capacities and his great experiment of the sea. They did not hesitate to question it over such engineering problems or such master key giving access a wild small island. These admirors, attentive with its peregrinations, always accommodated it as hero, that it is with the the Antilles, in Polynésie or on the Costa del Sol, with broad of which it frequently crossed to regain his native village: Sérignan. The narration of its adventures is appeared in a work pertaining to a famous collection on the single-handed sailors. One finds there, told by the navigator himself, his engagements epic against the unchained elements and its exciting respites, when healthy and except, it touches finally ground in paradisiac places. Jean Gau , emblematic figure of the the most traditional veil solitary, remains an example for good number of navigators. Its ingeniousness and its natural modesty contributed, beyond its maritime exploits, to make it very popular in years 1950/60. It dies out with Pézenas on February 14th, 1979, at the 77 years age.

Today still, its name remains engraved in the collective memory of the solitary veil and that of its village of Sérignan, where he liked to approach to find his old friends.

Reference book: Jean Gau by Jean Bussière, Emon editions, collection strange Navigators.

Jean Gau

J I want to sing Jean Gau celebrates phenomenon

E Child of Sérignan, in the wave its field

With Facing the storm with the terrible voice

NR Narguant Oceans in its nut hull

G So small and so large Gau enters the sky and water

With Daring, all alone in its frail boat

U Single in the world and giant of the floods

Pataqué

Holy Guillaume Courtet

Guillaume Courtet is probably since the XVIIe most popular century of Sérignanais in its commune. This spirit shining chose very early the total testimony of its faith as a Jesus-Christ. After a whole route of Preacher and professor of Theology in Languedoc, in Europe, in Asia, it will unload clandestinely with the Japan and it is on a hill of Nagasaki in 1637, qu' it will become the first Martyr French in Japan. With the wire of the centuries, its compatriots remained to him very attached thus contributing to success, in 1987, of a canonical cause which must to the canon Joseph Estournet so much.

Pierre of Jean Olivi (1248 - 1298)

Pierre of Jean Olivi (towards 1248 Sérignan, 1298 Narbonne) is a monk franciscan who exerted a considerable influence on Franciscains of the Languedoc and on the Fancies which surrounded them. It is one of the most outstanding figures, as well of the Western intellectual history as of the religious history of Languedoc in second half of the 13th century.

Richard Gasquet

French tennis player.

External bonds

Official site of the city
the blog of the festivals of the City (photographs, vidéos, advertisements)
Sérignan on the site of the national geographical Institute
Sérignan on the site of INSEE
Sérignan on the site of Quid
Localization of Sérignan on a chart of France and communes bordering
Plane on Sérignan on Mapquest

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