Langlade (; ) is a commune and a village 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 in southern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

located some southwest of

Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Located between the Med ...

. The village is situated in an area of low hills and plains known as the Vaunage and has existed since at least 1125. It was built near to a

Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

and had a small church at its centre. In the 17th century a staging point was set up on the Roman road nearby and later a station was built in the village on the railway line connecting Nîmes to

Roquefort Roquefort () is a sheep milk blue cheese from southern France. Though similar cheeses are produced elsewhere, European Union law, EU law dictates that only those cheeses aged in the natural Combalou caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon may bear the na ...

. The station closed in 1987. Much of the local area is devoted to the cultivation of grapes. From a hamlet with fewer than 400 inhabitants in the 1960s, the village has grown considerably, so that by 2008 it had 1,993 inhabitants.

History

First mentioned in 1125 as Anglata (meaning "angle" or "corner"), its early inhabitants appear to have been attracted by the plain just below the nearby Roman road between Nîmes and

Sommières Sommières (; ) is a commune in the Gard department in southern France, located at the border with the Hérault department. It lies from Nîmes, from Montpellier. Geography Sommières is to the south of the garrigues and on the edge of t ...

(the

Via Domitia The Via Domitia was the first Roman road built in Gaul, to link Italy and Hispania through Gallia Narbonensis, across what is now Southern France. The route that the Romans regularised and paved was ancient when they set out to survey it, and tra ...

) where there were opportunities for growing cereals and raising sheep. A small community grew up around St Julian's Church (''Église Saint Julien''), documented in 1149 as having a presbytery, a hospital and a cemetery. At the time, the village took the form of a narrow rectangle protected by stone walls."Histoire de Langlade"
, Langlade. Retrieved 7 October 2013. During the wars between the Protestants and the Catholics in the 16th and 17th centuries, the church was partly destroyed. Even after the revocation of the

Edict of Nantes The Edict of Nantes () was an edict signed in April 1598 by Henry IV of France, King Henry IV and granted the minority Calvinism, Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was predominantl ...

in 1685, many of the villagers continued secretly to observe the Protestant faith. In the 17th century, a staging post was established close to the village on the Roman road. In the early 19th century, with the establishment of the National Reformed Church, the village church became Protestant. In about 1850, a new building was erected to house the town hall on the first floor and a school on the ground floor. Langlade was connected to Nîmes by railway in 1882. In 1925, the Place du Visago was laid out at the eastern end of the original rectangle. Passenger traffic on the railway was terminated in 1970 and the railway was closed in 1987. In 2001, the new church of St Julian was built.

Geography

Langlade is located in Vaunage, an area of plains and low hills between

Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (, , ; ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately . History ...

and

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

. The name is a contraction of "Vallée de Nages" and it occupies a depression between the scrub-covered

hills A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit, and is usually applied to peaks which are above elevation compared to the relative landmass, though not as prominent as mountains. Hills fall und ...

on either side which cut it off from other areas. Although the population of the village has increased, the historic houses and streets in the centre have not been spoiled by the intrusion of modern buildings. The city of

is to the north and the town of

about to the south.

Wine production

With a history dating back to the Romans, Langlade has gained a name for wine production. In 1696,

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

presented the village with a coat of arms (three vine stakes surmounted by a

bunch of grapes In viticulture, the grape cluster (also bunch of grapes) is a fertilized inflorescence of the grapevine, the primary part of this plant used for food (grape leaves are also used in some culinary traditions). The size of the grape bunch greatly va ...

on a silver background) in recognition of the court's appreciation of its wines. By 1652, vineyards had been planted over an area of 140 hectares (346 acres). At the beginning of the 19th century, low-yield vines covered 600 hectares (1,480 acres) or 70% of the community's cultivated land. After they were destroyed by

phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belongs to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs); orig ...

in 1876, production ceased until 1882 when Henri-David and Antoine Dombre undertook replanting and the creation of the Château Langlade label. Today the area known as the "Vieux Langlade" is once again devoted to wine production.

Cavalier Windmill

The Cavalier Windmill (''Moulin à vent Cavalier'') is first mentioned in a

promissory note A promissory note, sometimes referred to as a note payable, is a legal instrument (more particularly, a financing instrument and a debt instrument), in which one party (the ''maker'' or ''issuer'') promises in writing to pay a determinate sum of ...

written in 1211 but also appears in documents in 1597, 1634 and 1693."Le Moulin de Hutter à Langlade"
petit-patrimoine.com. Retrieved 8 October 2013. In 1781, it appears on the

Cassini map The Cassini Map or Academy's Map is the first topographic and geometric map made of the Kingdom of France as a whole. It was compiled by the Cassini family, mainly César-François Cassini (Cassini III) and his son Jean-Dominique Cassini (Cas ...

. Its rotatable roof is supported by a cylindrical body of stone. Restored in 2004, the mill is now in full working order."Le Moulin à vent Cavalier de Langlade (Gard)"
Moulins de France. Retrieved 8 October 2013. Moulin de Langlade

History

Geography

Wine production

Cavalier Windmill

Population

See also