Bourg-Saint-Andéol

Bourg-Saint-Andéol
Train station
Bourg-Saint-Andéol
Administration
Country France
Region Rhône-Alpes
Department Ardèche
Arrondissement Privas
Canton Bourg-Saint-Andéol
Intercommunality Rhône aux gorges de l'Ardèche
Mayor Serge Martinez
(2008–2014)
Statistics
Elevation 70 m (230 ft) avg.
Land area1 43.74 km2 (16.89 sq mi)
Population2 7,324  (2008)
 - Density 167 /km2 (430 /sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code 07042/ 07700
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Bourg-Saint-Andéol is a commune in the Ardèche department in the Rhône Valley in southern France.

Contents

Geography

It lies directly along the Rhône River at the southeast end of the department 15 km (9.3 mi) south of the smaller see of Viviers, 4 km (2.5 mi) from Pierrelatte eastwards across the river in the département Drôme and 10 km (6.2 mi) from Pont-Saint-Esprit, in the north of the département of Gard. 14 km (8.7 mi) to the south-west starts the nearby Ardèche Gorges in Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche.

History

The Gallic settlement on a rocky peak over the Rhône river was called Bergoiata. Bourg-Saint-Andéol has one of the very rare testimonies of post-roman and pre-Christian religions with its sculpted bas relief of God Mithra. It acquired its present name after Saint Andeolus, the 'apostle of the Vivarais', a disciple of St. Polycarp, supposedly arriving from Minor Asia, who evangelized the area under Emperor Septimius Severus, and was martyred in 208. The region was named Helvia in Julius Caesar's De Bello Gallico, with Alba-la-Romaine as capital city, then Vivarais from the mediaeval times after the see of Viviers, a region of Languedoc province during Ancient Regime until départements were created at the French Revolution. Due to the citizen's engagement for the Revolution, the town's name rejected a while the quite whimmy saint and was named Bourg-sur-Rhône. (At the Napoleonic times, Andéol had already been brought in back...)

It had been the seat of a bailli (royal magistrate). And the bishop of Viviers had settled several decades in Renaissance times in the city (the Bishops' Palace). It is the seat of the mother houses of the Congregation of the Presentation of Mary and of the Religious Congregations of the Presentation.

The city had grown and become one of the most important towns of county Vivarais due to its position on the Rhône river (boatmen mariniers du Rhône, trade and business in hide, fabric, wine, oil). Several patricians' houses are still to be seen in the centre of the city (although a part of it was bombed by Allied forces at the end of World War II, missing the hanging bridge - which was replaced afterwards by the existing one).

Economy

Bourg-Saint-Andéol is the shopping center for surrounding villages. In the mid 80es, several factories closed and economy almost drowned (ceramics). Nowadays, Pierrelatte with the site of Tricastin, first atomic energy plant in France, makes that many residents of Bourg-Saint-Andéol earn their livelihood by working over the Rhône. Another noticeable economical source of the area - already a typical mediterranean zone - is wine, with the Côtes du Rhône méridionales (southern) gathering four other communes around the city (Saint-Marcel-d'Ardèche, Saint-Just and Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche). An oil mill has been recently re-established for olive harvests in the area.

Tourism

The area is popular for tourism and summer homes, and the city is known as the richest patrimonial city in Ardèche: there are many dolmens in the Bois du Laoul forest and a sculpture of Mithra near the Vauclusian springs of the Tourne. The Bishop's Renaissance palace and several former noble or grand-bourgeois 18th century places are regularly used for local and visitors during summer season.

Population

Historical population of Bourg-Saint-Andéol
Year 1793 1800 1806 1821 1831 1836 1841 1846 1851 1856
Population 3598 3964 4100 4167 4268 4290 4535 4670 4857 4430
Year 1861 1866 1872 1876 1881 1886 1891 1896 1901 1906
Population 4637 4515 4524 4313 4308 4284 4250 4264 4165 4173
Year 1911 1921 1926 1931 1936 1946 1954 1962 1968 1975
Population 4195 4155 4506 4203 3709 3401 3668 4400 7102 6861
Year 1982 1990 1999 2008
Population 7400 7795 7768 7324

Culture

Twin cities

See also

References