The Grau-of-King

the Grau-of-King in Occitan Lo Grau dau Rèi is a common French, located in the department of the Gard and the area Languedoc-Roussillon.

Geography

The Grau-of-King is located at the south of the Département of Gard. It is the only maritime outlet of this department. The Canton of Acute-Dead was obtained n the other hand from the Canton of Ganges (very rich at the time), following an exchange with the Herault compared to the initial department division. Founded by immigrants Italian S at the end of the 19th century, in an unhealthy zone, between Sea and pond S. Until the Years 1920, its activity is entirely turned towards the fishing and tourism (with Port the Camargue).

The downtown area, built around the channel connecting the ponds (and Acute-Dead) to the sea (Grau) preserves its traditional seal still today. Beyond the historical heart, the houses and buildings of holidays, are spread out at the rate/rhythm of the decades.

The Château Leenhardt (Beach Right Bank) was demolished in the years 1970, after one century of existence, its construction had been the occasion of a test of use of sand bricks which gave him a gray color. Old postcards show it when it became boarding house.

History

The Grau-of-King owes his definition at the time of the Croisades. At this period the commune of Acute-Dead was a royal port although the sea never came to the foot from its ramparts. The ships left by a channel dug through the ponds and to the sea.

The term Grau is a Languedocien word resulting from Latin “gradus”: passage, movement of a river. On the Languedocien littoral, it is a channel which puts a coastal pond, a lagoon in communication with the sea. The Grau-of-King is with the outlet of the channel which leads to Acute-Dead.

It is at the end of XVIe century that the the Rhone, while penetrating in torrent in water of Repausset, opens the grau which interests us, with the locality of Small Consac de Gagne.

It is then the beginning of long series of work to maintain this opening on the sea in order to preserve navigation in the port of Acute-Dead. In 1727 are built in the sea two empierrés moles prolonged in the pond of Repausset: this channel, rectified in 1845, is the current channel between the Acute-Dead Grau-of-King and .

With the passing of years, administrative buildings, huts and houses, pose the bases of a village of fishermen. Initially section of the commune of Acute-Dead in 1867, the Grau-of-King gains his autonomy in 1879.

In 1900, the Grau-of-King is yet only one very modest village of a little more than one thousand of inhabitants, which acquired its autonomy only since one score of years. In fact the fishing and the agriculture ensure, with the population, some resources: tourism is yet only embryonic, even if, since the XIXe century the mode of the sea bathings tends to spread. These immersions are still primarily regarded as medical care and the institutes which were assembled on the beaches accommodate especially poor populations. But public authorities and inhabitants understood that their richness was there, on these sand beaches end, between sea and sun.

The prolongation of the railway line of Nimes Acute-Dead is a true oxygen puff: the bathers arrive in mass and the local productions, like the Poisson and the white grape, are finally dispatched towards the national markets.

After years of efforts, medical work and payments, on April 26th, 1924 a Presidential decree of the Republic classifies finally the Grau-of-King “health resort and balneal”.

If the first war had relatively saved the village, in September 1939 the Second world war mark much more deeply the population. The enemy troops are physically present and the conflicts touch the civilians directly. The Grau-of-King must live under the occupation, with what that implies of restrictions, sacrifices and compromisings. The municipal council is quickly revoked to be replaced by a special delegation.

In 1942, the life of the village passes a new phase: the German troops are installed on all the littoral. Part of the population is forced with the exodus.

The coast gardoise represents only one score of kilometers, but because of the risks of unloading, the works and the installations military are particularly numerous on these places.

The beaches of the commune are roughcast of all kinds of anti-tank systems and concrete pyramids, of blockhouse,… 800 hectares of Vines and 200 hectares of pastures are transformed into minefield.

In the village, German also makes build casemates sheltering of the guns and the machine-guns. The entry of the channel is closed by an underwater ancient net and a slope flame thrower. The doors and the shutters of the houses are used to manufacture platforms and encuvements out of wood.

The year 1944 marks the last months of occupation. They prove to be most painful because the troops of occupation, gained by the defeat, reinforce the brimades and the requisitions. The Grau-of-King is released in August, and in 1945, peace is signed.

It is only after the second part of the century that the Grau-of-King surmounts truly the damage caused by the Second world war. The station starts a real tourist and economic development then.

In order to rationalize the installation of the littoral, the State then sets up the “Racine plan”. The architect Jean Balladur is charged with the file. He must imagine structures able to satisfy the tourist surge while respecting the quality of life of autochtones and by preserving the environment. It is within the framework of this program that the large building site of Port the Camargue is envisaged.

Administration

Mayor - Deputy of the Gard

Demography

Places and monuments

Equipped with the largest port of pleasure of Europe: Port the Camargue, Grau of the King - Camargue Port became a major tourist pole of the Littoral Languedocien, and remains the second port fishing French in the Mediterranean.

With the regular increase in its inhabitants (6 770 inhabitants in 2005), the village of fishermen became a small town equipped: schools, Arenas, Auditorium, Seaquarium, casino, Fun fair…

Personalities related to the commune

Jacques Philippe Mareschal

Twinning

See too

External bonds

general Information of the Grau-of-King
Tourist office of the Grau-of-King
Site gate of the department duGard
the Grau-of-King on the site of the national geographical Institute
the Grau-of-King on the site of INSEE
the Grau-of-King on the site of Quid
Localization of the Grau-of-King on a chart of France and communes bordering
Plane on the Grau-of-King on Mapquest

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