Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (sometimes abbreviated as AHP; ; ; ), formerly until 1970 known as Basses-Alpes (, ), is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France, bordering Alpes-Maritimes and Italy to the east, Var to the sou ...
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...
of
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (commonly shortened to PACA), also known as Région Sud, is one of the eighteen Regions of France, administrative regions of France, located at the far southeastern point of the Metropolitan France, mainland. The main P ...
, in southeastern
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 ...
The village of Le Vernet is located in the Valley at altitude. Its population does not exceed 100 permanent residents, but it is often more than doubled each summer and winter, when the municipality becomes the place of departure for sightseeing excursions, particularly in the Valley, and a place of departure for the nearby ski stations ( Grand-Puy, and Chabanon).
The municipality has two main villages, Haut-Vernet, perched high and Bas-Vernet below.
Geology
During the two last major glaciations, the
Riss glaciation
The Riss glaciation, Riss Glaciation, Riss ice age, Riss Ice Age, Riss glacial or Riss Glacial (, ', ' or (obsolete) ') is the second youngest glaciation of the Pleistocene epoch in the traditional, quadripartite glacial classification of the Alps ...
and the
Würm glaciation
The Würm glaciation or Würm stage ( or ''Würm-Glazial'', colloquially often also ''Würmeiszeit'' or ''Würmzeit''; cf. ice age), usually referred to in the literature as the Würm (often spelled "Wurm"), was the last glacial period in the ...
, a glacier was present in the upper part of the Riou de la Montagne Valley. During the Riss glaciation, a of the Blanche glacier crossed the Col de Maure and reached approximately to the location of the village of the current Bas-Vernet. The diffluence was reproduced during the Würm period, but did not reach the territory of Vernet.
Relief
The Pic des Têtes, at , is located within the territory of the commune, as well as the , in the
Massif des Trois-Évêchés
Massif des Trois-Évêchés (; ; ) is a mountain range in the Provence Alps and Prealps in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France. Its name comes from the central summit of the massif, the Pic des Trois-Évêchés (so named because it marked the boundar ...
.
Environment
The commune comprises of woods and forests.
Transport
Natural and technological hazards
None of the 200 communes of the Department is in the zero seismic risk zone. The
Canton of Seyne
The canton of Seyne is an administrative division in southeastern France. At the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015, the canton was expanded from 8 to 34 communes:
#Archail
#Auzet
#Barles
#Bayons
# Beaujeu
#Bellaff ...
, to which Le Vernet belongs, is in zone 1b (low seismicity) determined by the 1991 classification, based on the historical
earthquake
An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...
s, and in zone 4 (medium risk) according to the probabilistic classification EC8 of 2011. The municipality of Le Vernet is also exposed to four other natural hazards:
*Avalanche
*Forest fire
*Flooding
*Ground movement
The commune of Le Vernet is more exposed to a risk of technological origin, that of transport of dangerous goods by road. The RD 900 (the former ) can be used for the road transport of
dangerous goods
Dangerous goods are substances that are a risk to health, safety, property or the environment during transport. Certain dangerous goods that pose risks even when not being transported are known as hazardous materials ( syllabically abbreviate ...
.
A predictable natural (PPR) doesn't exist for the commune and does not exist either.
History remembers two earthquakes to have been strongly felt in the town. They exceeded a macro-seismic intensity level V on the MSK scale (sleepers awake, falling objects). The specified intensities are those felt in the town, the intensity can be stronger at the
epicentre
The epicenter (), epicentre, or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates.
Determination
The primary purpose of a s ...
:
*The earthquake of 22 March 1949 had an intensity level V, and with Le Lauzet at the epicentre
*The earthquake of 31 October 1997 had an intensity level V, and with
Prads-Haute-Bléone
Prads-Haute-Bléone (; ''Prats Auta Blèuna'' in Vivaro-Alpine dialect, Vivaro-Alpine) is a Communes of France, commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Departments of France, department and in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, r ...
at the epicentre
Toponymy
According to the Fénie couple, the name of Le Vernet refers to
alder
Alders are trees of the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus includes about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few species ex ...
.
History
During
antiquity
Antiquity or Antiquities may refer to:
Historical objects or periods Artifacts
*Antiquities, objects or artifacts surviving from ancient cultures
Eras
Any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) but still within the histo ...
Bléone
The Bléone (; ) is a long river in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence '' département'', southeastern France. Its drainage basin is .
Valley, and were therefore the
Gallic people
The Gauls (; , ''Galátai'') were a group of Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (''Gallia''). They spoke Gaulish, a continental Celt ...
who lived in the current municipality of Vernet. The Bodiontiques, who were defeated by
Augustus
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...
at the same time as other peoples present on the
Tropaeum Alpium
The Tropaeum Alpium (; ) is a Roman trophy ('' tropaeum'') celebrating the emperor Augustus's decisive victory over the tribes who populated the Alps. The monument's ruins are in La Turbie (France), a few kilometers from the Principality of Mo ...
(before 14 BC), are attached to the province of
Alpes Maritimae
The Alpes Maritimae (; English: 'Maritime Alps') was a small province of the Roman Empire founded in 63 AD by Nero. It was one of the three provinces straddling the Alps between modern France and Italy, along with the Alpes Graiae et Poeninae an ...
at its inception.
The town appears for the first time in charters in the 11th century. ( BnF no FRBNF35450017h The
Priory
A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...
Marseille
Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...
, via the Priory of Chaudol (now in
La Javie
La Javie (; ) is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in southeastern France.
Geography
The village lies on the right bank of the Bléone, which flows west through the southeastern part of the commune.
Population
See also
* ...
). The priory decided the ''questes'' and the
taille
The ''taille'' () was a direct land tax on the French peasantry and non-nobles in ''Ancien Régime'' France. The tax was imposed on each household and was based on how much land it held, and was paid directly to the state.
History
Originally ...
, the lord decided the
cavalcade
A cavalcade is a procession or parade on horseback, or a mass distance ride by a company of riders.
Sometimes the focus of a cavalcade is participation rather than display and the participants do not wear costumes or ride in formation. ...
Bailli
A bailiff (, ) was the king's administrative representative during the ''ancien régime'' in northern France, where the bailiff was responsible for the application of justice and control of the administration and local finances in his bailiwick ...
of
Seyne
Seyne (; Vivaro-Alpine: ''Sèina'') is a commune in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, a department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in south-east France. It is roughly 30 km north of Digne.
The village's official name is listed under t ...
, a in the 13th century.
In the Middle Ages, the great road of
Digne
Digne-les-Bains (; Occitan: ''Dinha dei Banhs''), or simply and historically Digne (''Dinha'' in the classical norm or ''Digno'' in the Mistralian norm), is the prefecture of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte ...
to Seyne passed, descending from the Col du Labouret, by Haut-Vernet, without following the Bès Valley.
In 1602, the trial exploitation of a vein of copper was cut short, the deposit actually being very poor. As early as 1604, the owners couldn't pay the workers, some were sent to Villevieille and
Verdaches
Verdaches (; ) is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in southeastern France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department
The following is a list of the 198 communes of the Alpes-de-Haute-Prov ...
. These mines were given a new concession in 1614, without which their operation would never have restarted.
During the French Revolution, the town had a , created after the end of 1792.
As with many communes of the Department, Le Vernet acquired schools well before the
Jules Ferry laws
The Jules Ferry laws are a set of French laws which established free education in 1881, then mandatory and ''laic'' (secular) education in 1882. Jules Ferry, a lawyer holding the office of Minister of Public Instruction in the 1880s, is widely c ...
: In 1863, it had one each at Haut-Vernet and Bas-Vernet, which provide a
primary education
Primary education is the first stage of Education, formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary education. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first schools and middle s ...
for boys. While the
Falloux Laws
The Falloux Laws promoted Catholic schools in France in the 1850s, 1860s and 1870s. They were voted in during the French Second Republic and promulgated on 15 March 1850 and in 1851, following the presidential election of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte ...
of 1851 required the opening of a girls school for communes with more than 800 inhabitants, and the first of 1867 lowered the threshold to 500 inhabitants, Le Vernet nevertheless opened a school for girls, ahead of the laws. The commune took advantage of subsidies from the second Duruy Law in 1877 to build a new school at Haut-Vernet.
On 24 March 2015,
Germanwings Flight 9525
Germanwings Flight 9525 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Barcelona–El Prat Airport in Spain to Düsseldorf Airport in Germany. The flight was operated by Germanwings, a low-cost carrier owned by the German airline Luftha ...
, an
Airbus A320
The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus.
The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France.
The first membe ...
flying from
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
to
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
, crashed in the mountains of the neighboring commune of Prads-Haute-Bléone, near to the border with Le Vernet.
Politics and administration
Population and society
Demography
In 2017, Le Vernet had 123 inhabitants. From the 21st century, communes with less than 10,000 inhabitants have a census held every five years (2004, 2009 and 2014, etc. for the Vernet). Since 2004, the other figures are estimates.
The demographic history of Le Vernet, after the depopulation of the 14th and 15th centuries and long movement of growth until the beginning of the 19th century, is marked by a period of 'spread' where the population remains stable at a high level. This period lasts from 1806 to 1846. The then caused a rapid decline in population, most importantly a long-term movement. Between 1911 and 1921, the municipality records the loss of more than half of its population (relative to the historic maximum). The downward movement is interrupted only in the 1980s. Since then, the population has doubled.
Education
The town depends on the . It has a primary school, consisting of 9 students.
Religion
The Catholic parish of Le Vernet depends on the Diocese of Digne, Riez and Sisteron.
Local culture and heritage
Sites and monuments
In Bas-Vernet, the parish church of Sainte-Marthe dates from the 19th century.
At Haut-Vernet, the Saint-Martin Church is also from the 19th century.
The chapel of Saint-Pancrace, isolated above Haut-Vernet, is the old parish church. Ruined by the
European wars of religion
The European wars of religion were a series of wars waged in Europe during the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries. Fought after the Protestant Reformation began in 1517, the wars disrupted the religious and political order in the Catholic Chu ...
, it was rebuilt, and its roof was repaired again in the 20th century.
*The Oratory of Saint-Roch
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...