Le Clapier (; oc, Lo Clapièr) is a
commune in the
Aveyron department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
in southern
France.
Population
Geology
The village is located 640 meters above sea level, West of the
Causse du Larzac
The Larzac, also known as the Causse of Larzac (French: ''Causse du Larzac''), is a limestone karst plateau in the south of the Massif Central, France, situated between Millau (in the département of l'Aveyron) and Lodève (in the départem ...
, which is 100 or 200 meters higher. The plateau in the region of Le Clapier, which dates from the
Sinemurian age, is very stony and has many low walls and heaps of stones, hence the name as "clapier" is a French word for an accumulation of stones in
Occitania
Occitania ( oc, Occitània , , or ) is the historical region in Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe where the Occitan language, Occitan language was historically spoken and where it is sometimes still used as a second language. This ...
. Along the slope of Larzac is a thick layer of black
marl
Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae.
Marl makes up the lower part o ...
stones which date from the
Toarcian age. It is streaked due to linear erosion and marl may be found in the local prairies. The edge of Larzac (also called the Western Guillhaumard) is made of large white limestone cliffs dating from the
Bathonian age. The marls are rich in fossils of marine animals such as
Ammonoidea
Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttle ...
and
Belemnoidea. Also, the valley of the Sorgue close to Larzac reveals sediments dating as far back as the
Cambrian Series 2
Cambrian Series 2 is the unnamed 2nd series of the Cambrian. It lies above the Terreneuvian series and below the Miaolingian. Series 2 has not been formally defined by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, lacking a precise lower boundary ...
. The village is located on the Mediterranean side of the Atlantic and Mediterranean watershed.
Sights
In the center of the village, the Clapier castle is made of the remains of a medieval fort, probably built by the Hospitallers of Jerusalem. The bottom part of a tower contains several arrow slits. It was ruined at the times of the Wars of Religion, but was partially reconstructed in the 17th and 18th centuries to become a farm. Episcopal archives mention that the fort of Clapier was built for pilgrims on the
Way of St. James
The Camino de Santiago ( la, Peregrinatio Compostellana, "Pilgrimage of Compostela"; gl, O Camiño de Santiago), known in English as the Way of St James, is a network of pilgrims' ways or pilgrimages leading to the shrine of the Twelve Apostle ...
to shelter them from wolves and brigands. It contained dormitories, a bread oven, the commander's residence and a prison.
The
Jardin botanique de Saint Xist is also located in Le Clapier.
See also
*
Communes of the Aveyron department
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clapier
Communes of Aveyron