Baâlons

Coat of arms

Baâlons

Location within Champagne-Ardenne region

Baâlons

Coordinates: 49°35′42″N 4°40′16″E / 49.595°N 4.6711°ECoordinates: 49°35′42″N 4°40′16″E / 49.595°N 4.6711°E

Country

Omont

Crêtes Préardennaises

Government

• Mayor (2012–2020)

Pascal Nihotte

Area¹

14.72 km² (5.68 sq mi)

Population (2010)²

213

• Density

14/km² (37/sq mi)

INSEE/Postal code

08041 / 08430

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.

Baâlons is a French commune in the Ardennes department in the Champagne-Ardenne region of northern France.

The inhabitants of the commune are known as Baâlonnais or Baâlonnaises.^[1]

Geography

Baâlons is located some 25 km north-east of Rethel and 18 km south of Charleville-Mézières. Access to the commune is by the D28 road from Bouvellemont in the south which passes through the village and continues north-east then north to join the D27. The D991 also goes north from Bouvellemont passing through the west of the commune to join the D951 north of Mazerny. The commune is mixed forest and farmland with particularly large forests in the east.

The Ruisseau du Fond Cahors rises west of the village and flows west to join the Ruisseau de la Fontaine aux Chênes. The Ruisseau des Puiselets forms the western border of the commune as it flows south to join the Ruisseau du Fond Cahors. The Ruisseau de Baâlons rises in the north of the commune and flows south towards the village then turns east to join the Ruisseau de Bairon on the eastern border. The Ruisseau de Bairon forms the eastern border of the commune as it flows south to join the Étang de Bairon which feeds into the Canal des Ardennes west of Tannay.^[2]

Hamlets and localities in the commune

Géraumont in 1905

Géraumont

Géraumont was a former fief where there is still a castle, now Géromont Farm.

Les Puiselets

A small hamlet west of Baâlons village. It is now very sparsely populated however the General Dictionary of cities towns, villages, hamlets and farms of France by Duclos says that in 1846 there were 70 inhabitants.^[3]

Beauvois

A Hamlet in the north of the commune which is still populated.

Neighbouring communes and villages^[4]

Baâlons

Saint-Loup-Terrier

Bouvellemont

Chagny

History

Various objects have been found in the commune:^[5]

Tools and shards of flint which are probably Neolithic
Gallo-Roman Bronze Statuettes of Mars and Jupiter
A Merovingian and Carolingian Cemetery

The Universal Dictionary of Ancient and Modern France and New France by Marin Saugrain stated in 1726 that:^[6]

"BAALON in Champagne, Diocese of Reims, Parliament of Paris, Intendance of Chalons, Election of Rhetel, has 419 inhabitants. The Curate is worth nine hundred livres.".

Heraldry

	Blazon: Parti per pale: 1 Or a lion Sable, 2 Argent with 3 fesses Sable; the whole in chief Gules charged with 3 mullets Or.

Administration

The Town Hall

List of Successive Mayors^[7]

From	To	Name
2001	2008	Ludovic Dasnois
2008	2012	Henri Charpentier
2012	2020	Pascal Nihotte

(Not all data is known)

Demography

In 2010 the commune had 213 inhabitants. The evolution of the number of inhabitants is known from the population censuses conducted in the commune since 1793. From the 21st century, a census of communes with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants is held every five years, unlike larger communes that have a sample survey every year.^{[Note 1]}

Evolution of the Population (See database)

1793	1800	1806	1821	1831	1836	1841	1846	1851
660	751	795	902	925	947	920	907	862

1856	1861	1866	1872	1876	1881	1886	1891	1896
-	-	682	633	609	553	528	476	415

1901	1906	1911	1921	1926	1931	1936	1946	1954
377	392	346	301	288	259	232	251	204

1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2006	2010	-
173	169	163	147	160	170	-	213	-

Sources : Ldh/EHESS/Cassini until 1962, INSEE database from 1968 (population without double counting and municipal population from 2006)

The War Memorial

Sites and Monuments

The Church of Saint-Rémi and the Town Hall

The Church of Saint-Rémi is a church dating to the 13th century in the late Romanesque style with a tympanum over the door from the 10th century representing a man with a crosier and an open book flanked by two angels. The church contains two items which are registered as historical objects:
- A Group Sculpture: Saint Nicolas (17th century)^[8]
- A Statue: Virgin and child (14th century)^[9]

The Chapel of Saint Anne was built in 1911 on the site of a chapel dating from 1807 near the Saint Anne spring which was a place of pilgrimage. The Procession of Saint Anne is held on 26 July of each year.

Church and Chapel Picture Gallery

The Church of Saint-Rémi
The facade of the Church
The door to the Church
The Tympanum
Stained glass in the Church
A Wayside Cross
The chapel of Saint Anne
The Altar in the Chapel
An Oratory at the Chapel of Saint Anne
Strained glass in the Chapel

Notable people linked to the commune

Eugène Houssière, emigrated to Louisiana USA in 1883, donated the Chapel of Saint Anne in 1911.

Notes and references

Notes

↑ At the beginning of the 21st century, the methods of identification have been modified by Law No. 2002-276 of 27 February 2002, the so-called "law of local democracy" and in particular Title V "census operations" allows, after a transitional period running from 2004 to 2008, the annual publication of the legal population of the different French administrative districts. For communes with a population greater than 10,000 inhabitants, a sample survey is conducted annually, the entire territory of these communes is taken into account at the end of the period of five years. The first "legal population" after 1999 under this new law came into force in 1 January 2009 and was based on the census of 2006.

References

↑ Inhabitants of Ardennes (French)
↑ Google Maps
↑ Duclos, Dictionnaire général des villes bourgs, villages, hameaux et fermes de la France, 4th ed., Paris & Limoges : Martial Ardent frères, p.387 (French)
↑ Géoportail, IGN (French)
↑ Archives MAE, GA0107 FR MAESA GA 55/1 (French)
↑ Marin Saugrain, Dictionnaire universel de la France ancienne et moderne et de la Nouvelle France, Paris, 1726, t.1, p.271 (French)
↑ List of Mayors of France (French)
↑ Ministry of Culture, Palissy PM08000044 Group Sculpture: Saint Nicolas (French)
↑ Ministry of Culture, Palissy PM08000043 Statue: Virgin and child (French)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Baâlons.

Communes of the Ardennes department

Baâlons