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Vouvant
Vouvant () is a commune in the department of Vendée, in the Pays de la Loire region in western France. Vouvant is labelled as ''Les Plus Beaux Villages de France'' (since 1988), ''Petite cité de caractère'', and the village has obtained two flowers out of five in the ''Concours des villes et villages fleuris''. It is the only fortified village of Vendée. Its inhabitants are called ''Vouvantais''. Over 10% of the population of Vouvant is British owing to a gradual occupation or purchase of real estate by English families. Sites and monuments Several sites and monuments are present in Vouvant : * Walled enclosure of the Lusignan (dated between the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th century) : the Tour Mélusine (keep of the castle), the fortifications around the village, the Postern Gate, etc. The Tour Mélusine has been protected as a '' monument historique'' by the French Ministry of Culture since 1927. The city fortifications has been protected as a ''mon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tour Mélusine
The Tour Mélusine is the keep of a former castle in the commune of Vouvant in the ''département'' of Vendée in France. History This keep and watchtower, built at the end of the 12th century or the beginning of the 13th century (very often dated 1242, even if this is probably wrong because of architectural techniques and features), is the only vestige of the ancient castle of the Lords of Lusignan built in the present location of the "Place du Bail". This castle was separated from the fortified town of Vouvant by a moat. A chapel, long gone, was leaning against the tower. Like all of the Lusignan's castles, legend holds that it was built in a single night by the fairy Melusine "''de trois dornées de pierres et d'une goulée d'Ève''" ("from three apronfuls of stones and a mouthful of water"). (in French) This tower, 45 m high from the ditch and with its cylindrical shape, is original from that time. Indeed, the majority of the castles of this region and of this time are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Of Lusignan
The House of Lusignan ( ; ) was a royal house of French origin, which at various times ruled several principalities in Europe and the Levant, including the kingdoms of Jerusalem, Cyprus, and Armenia, from the 12th through the 15th centuries during the Middle Ages. It also had great influence in England and France. The family originated in Lusignan, in Poitou, western France, in the early 10th century. By the end of the 11th century, the family had risen to become the most prominent petty lords in the region from their castle at Lusignan. In the late 12th century, through marriages and inheritance, a cadet branch of the family came to control the kingdoms of Jerusalem and Cyprus. In the early 13th century, the main branch succeeded to the Counties of La Marche and Angoulême. As Crusader kings in the Latin East, they soon had connections with the Hethumid rulers of the Kingdom of Cilicia, which they inherited through marriage in the mid-14th century. The Armenian branch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vendée
Vendée (; br, Vande) is a department in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France, on the Atlantic coast. In 2019, it had a population of 685,442.Populations légales 2019: 85 Vendée INSEE Its prefecture is . History The area today called the Vendée was originally known as the ''Bas-Poitou'' and is part of the former province of Poitou. In the southeast corner, the village of[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Communes Of The Vendée Department
The following is a list of the 257 communes of the Vendée department of France. The communes cooperate in the following intercommunalities (as of 2022):BANATIC Périmètre des EPCI à fiscalité propre. Accessed 7 October 2020. * Communauté d'agglomération Terres de Montaigu *Communauté d'agglomération La Roche-sur-Yon Agglomération *Communauté d'agglomération |
Mervent
Mervent () is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region in western France. Places and monumentsFrom the french article on Mervent * The Château de la Citardière * The Old Castle ruins in the village, * The church Saint-Medard * The Mère river. * The Mervent-Vouvant forest * The Pierre-Brune recreation park * The Natur’Zoo. * The cave where Louis de Montfort (an 18th-century catholic priest) prayed Main sights File:Eglise de Mervent.jpg, Mervent's church File:Forêt de Mervent.jpg, The forest File:Lac de Mervent.jpg, Mervent's lake File:W2369-Mervent ErmitageMontfort Grotte 37711.JPG, The cave of Louis de Monfort See also *Communes of the Vendée department The following is a list of the 257 communes of the Vendée department of France. The communes cooperate in the following intercommunalities (as of 2022): [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Plus Beaux Villages De France
''Les Plus Beaux Villages de France'' (meaning “the most beautiful villages of France”) is an independent association created in 1982 for the promotion of the tourist appeal of small rural villages with a rich cultural heritage. As of September 2016, it numbers 156 member villages (independent ''communes'' or part of a '' communauté de communes''). Membership requires meeting certain selection criteria and offers a strategy for development and promotion to tourists. The three initial selection criteria are the rural nature of the village (a population of less than 2,000 inhabitants), the presence of at least two national heritage sites ( ''sites classés'' or ''monuments historiques'') and local support in the form of a vote by the council. Each village must pay an annual fee to the association and the mayor must sign the association's Quality Charter. If the village fails to meet the requirements of the charter it may be excluded. The association claims membership can br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Communes Of France
The () is a level of administrative divisions, administrative division in the France, French Republic. French are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipality, municipalities in the United States and Canada, ' in Germany, ' in Italy, or ' in Spain. The United Kingdom's equivalent are civil parishes, although some areas, particularly urban areas, are unparished. are based on historical geographic communities or villages and are vested with significant powers to manage the populations and land of the geographic area covered. The are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France. vary widely in size and area, from large sprawling cities with millions of inhabitants like Paris, to small hamlet (place), hamlets with only a handful of inhabitants. typically are based on pre-existing villages and facilitate local governance. All have names, but not all named geographic areas or groups of people residing together are ( or ), the difference residing in the l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crypt
A crypt (from Latin '' crypta'' " vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a church, such as at the Abbey of Saint-Germain en Auxerre, but were later located beneath chancel, naves and transepts as well. Occasionally churches were raised high to accommodate a crypt at the ground level, such as St Michael's Church in Hildesheim, Germany. Etymology The word "Crypt" developed as an alternative form of the Latin "vault" as it was carried over into Late Latin, and came to refer to the ritual rooms found underneath church buildings. It also served as a vault for storing important and/or sacred items. The word "Crypta", however, is also the female form of ''crypto'' "hidden". The earliest known origin of both is in the Ancient Greek '' κρύπτω'' (krupto/krypto), the first person singular indicative of the verb "to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lourdes
Lourdes (, also , ; oc, Lorda ) is a market town situated in the Pyrenees. It is part of the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. Prior to the mid-19th century, the town was best known for the Château fort de Lourdes, a fortified castle that rises up from a rocky escarpment at its center. In 1858 Lourdes rose to prominence in France and abroad due to the Marian apparitions claimed to have been seen by the peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous, who was later canonized. Shortly thereafter the city with the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes became one of the world's most important sites of pilgrimage and religious tourism. History Antiquity The current municipal area of Lourdes was inhabited in prehistoric times. In Roman times it had to be, since the first century BC, an oppidum hill where today stands the fortress, as is testified by the numerous finds that came to light in the second half of the nineteenth century (remains of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type building, the strict definition of the term "nave" is restricted to the central aisle. In a broader, more colloquial sense, the nave includes all areas available for the lay worshippers, including the side-aisles and transepts.Cram, Ralph Adams Nave The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. Accessed 13 July 2018 Either way, the nave is distinct from the area reserved for the choir and clergy. Description The nave extends from the entry—which may have a separate vestibule (the narthex)—to the chancel and may be flanked by lower side-aisles separated from the nave by an arcade. If the aisles are high and of a width comparable to the central nave, the structure is sometimes said to have three naves. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transept
A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building within the Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architectural traditions. Each half of a transept is known as a semitransept. Description The transept of a church separates the nave from the sanctuary, apse, choir, chevet, presbytery, or chancel. The transepts cross the nave at the crossing, which belongs equally to the main nave axis and to the transept. Upon its four piers, the crossing may support a spire (e.g., Salisbury Cathedral), a central tower (e.g., Gloucester Cathedral) or a crossing dome (e.g., St Paul's Cathedral). Since the altar is usually located at the east end of a church, a transept extends to the north and south. The north and south end walls often hold decorated windows of stained glass, such as ros ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apsidiole
An apsidole or absidiale is a small or secondary apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ..., one of the apses on either side of the main apse in a triapsidal church, or one of the apse-chapels when they project on the exterior of the church, particularly if the projection resembles an apse in shape. Francis Bond says that the Norman plan of eastern limb, which the Norman builders brought over to England at the Conquest, contained a central apse flanked by apsidioles. Notes References Church architecture {{Church-architecture-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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