Sainte-Cécile-d'Andorge
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Sainte-Cécile-d'Andorge (; oc, Senta Cecília d'Andòrge) is a commune in the
Gard Gard () is a department in Southern France, located in the region of Occitanie. It had a population of 748,437 as of 2019;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 France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.


Geography

The commune or Sainte Cécile d'Andorge is sparsely populated. It lies at the extreme north of the department of
Gard Gard () is a department in Southern France, located in the region of Occitanie. It had a population of 748,437 as of 2019;Lozère Lozère (; oc, Losera ) is a landlocked department in the region of Occitanie in Southern France, located near the Massif Central, bounded to the northeast by Haute-Loire, to the east by Ardèche, to the south by Gard, to the west by Aveyron, ...
. Its river, the Andorge here joins the larger
Gardon d'Alès The Gardon d'Alès is a tributary of the Gardon in the Lozère and Gard departments, France. It is long. Its source is in the Cévennes near Saint-Privat-de-Vallongue. It flows through the town Alès Alès (; oc, Alès) is a Communes of Fra ...
(sometimes known as the Long Valley) whose sources lie further up the valley in Lozère. The waters flow through this long cevenol valley through the former mining village of
la Grand-Combe La Grand-Combe (; oc, La Grand Comba) is a commune in the Gard department in southern France. Geography The town lies on the opposite bank of the river Gardon d'Alès from Les Salles-du-Gardon. It is 13 km upstream and north of Alès in the ...
and down to the flatter land at Alès.


Population


Coal

This was a coal mining area, with important collieries of high-grade coal both in this valley and at Portes. These mines closed in 1973.


Railroads

There are three notable railways in the commune, one in operation, one under reconstruction and one defunct.


Dams

The waters of the Gardon d'Alès have been tamed by two dams forming two reservoirs. The first, the Barrage de Camboix, was a hydro-electric scheme designed to supplement the power for the coal mines at Grand-Combe, and the second, the ''barrage de Sainte Cécile'', was designed as a holding reservoir to control the violent 'crue' the area suffers when violent storms in the hills send an uncontrolled surge of water down the river flooding low-lying houses and agricultural land. File:Logo_Sainte_Cecile.jpg, Logo municipal File:Gardon d'Alès near Sainte-Cécile-d'Andorge (Gard, Fr).JPG, Gardon d'Alès near the village of Sainte-Cécile-d'Andorge File:Viaduc_de_l'andorge.JPG, Viaduc sur l'Andorge on the TAC File:SteCécileD Andorge250809.jpg, Le lake de Sainte Cécile d'Andorge File:SteCécileD Andorge250809 (7).jpg, The statue of Our Lady


History

The commune of Sainte-Cécile-d'Andorge has a long history. There are some prehistoric remains to be found such as tumuli and some paintings mainly in the hamlet of Ponchets. The current houses date from the 18th century and have been protected from modern development. They are mostly built from the local stone (
schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes o ...
). Unusually for a village in the fiercely Protestant Cévennes, Sainte-Cécile remained Catholic. During the Guerre des Camisards (1702 - 1705), it was the scene of violent action. On 11 October 1703 the villages of Sainte-Cécile-d'Andorge and Saint-Julien-des-Points were set alight by Rolland et Jouanny; 800 to 900 Camisard attacked the papist village of Sainte-Cécile-d'Andorge, enraged by the dévastation of the previous months in the Hautes Cévennes. The residents took refuge in their fortified church but 9 were too slow and were slaughtered. Several days later, Abbé Vidal, curé de Sainte-Cécile, lead a revenge attack on the neighbouring reformed parish of Blannaves. The church tower dates from the 13th century.


The railways

The principal rail line, part of the PLM Transcévenol, threads its way along the Gardon valley from Alès to
Génolhac Génolhac is a commune in the Gard department in southern France. Geography Climate Génolhac has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification ''Csa''). The average annual temperature in Génolhac is . The average annual r ...
to Mende, this section of the line was approved in 1861 and opened 5 May 1870, and provided the link between Languedoc, Alès and Issoire and Paris. It hosted three express trains. There is still a twice daily local service. From the station at Sainte-Cécile-d'Andorge there is a 1-metre gauge railway to
Florac Florac is a former commune of the Lozère department in southern France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Florac-Trois-Rivières. History Medieval Raymond of Anduze held the barony of Florac and is recorded as using ...
. It is 49 km long. This is known as the TAC. Authorised in 1859, the line was built by the Chemins de Fer Départementaux to bring wooden pit props down to Alés, with some passenger traffic. This amounted to two trains a day. The track is very winding, and climbs to 1024 m to cross the Col de Jalcreste. It closed in 1968. Enthuiasts are restoring it. They run a passenger pulling diesel locomotive on the first section, which includes the Viaduct d'Andorge.TAC images
/ref> Between 1859 and 1867 there was a gravity driven rail line from the mainline at Le Levade, La Grand-Combe to Portes et Sénéchas. This was to serve the mines at La Vernarède. The full wagons descending to the river pulled up the empty wagons by a system of cables. It was the idea of the engineer
Paul-Adrien Bourdaloue Paul Adrien Bourdaloue (4 January 1798, Bourges - 21 June 1868, Bourges) was a French civil engineer and topographer, who proposed the first orthometric levelling of France. Life Head of the Corps des Ponts et Chaussées, then engineer-resident o ...
.


See also

*
Communes of the Gard department This is a list of the 351 Communes of France, communes of the Gard Departments of France, department of France. The communes cooperate in the following Communes of France#Intercommunality, intercommunalities (as of 2020):


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saintececiledandorge
Communes of Gard