Capdenac () is a
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
in the
Lot department in south-western
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
.
It has been inhabited since prehistoric times. At one time Capdenac was thought to be identifiable as the Gaulish settlement of
Uxellodunum
Uxellodunum is an Iron Age hill fort, or ''oppidum'', located above the river Dordogne near the modern-day French village of Vayrac in the Lot department. This stronghold lay within the lands of the Cadurci tribe. According to Aulus Hirtiu ...
which was besieged by
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, ...
, but this theory has been discredited.
Geography
The old village of Capdenac is situated on a hill on a ridge which forces a large meander in the river
Lot. It is directly west, across the river from the main town of
Capdenac-Gare. To the south of Capdenac-Gare is the area of Massip, which is the location of a convent.
Convent during the Second World War
During the Second World War, encouraged by contact with
Archbishop Saliège and Monseigneur de Courrège d'Ustou, Sister Denise Bergon arranged for the convent of Notre Dame de Massip in Capdenac (where she was
Mother Superior
An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey.
Description
In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic ...
) to shelter some 83 Jewish children at risk due to
the Holocaust in France
The Holocaust in France was the persecution, deportation, and annihilation of Jews and Roma between 1940 and 1944 in occupied France, metropolitan Vichy France, and in Vichy-controlled French North Africa, during World War II. The persecution b ...
.
[ The children were hidden in the convent's boarding school. Apart from Sister Denise, only Sister Marguerite Roques (nurse and mathematics teacher), together with the school's chaplain and two other sisters knew the truth about the children's religious backgrounds.]
''www.ajpn.org (Anonymes, Justes et Persécutés durant la période Nazie dans les communes de France)'', accessed 15 September 2020
See also
*
Communes of the Lot department
The following is a list of the 313 communes of the Lot department of France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and ...
References
Communes of Lot (department)
{{Lot-geo-stub