Mauzac-et-Grand-Castang

Mauzac-et-Grand-Castang
Commune
Mauzac-et-Grand-Castang
Location within Nouvelle-Aquitaine region  Mauzac-et-Grand-Castang
Coordinates: 44°51′55″N 0°47′53″E / 44.8653°N 0.7981°E / 44.8653; 0.7981Coordinates: 44°51′55″N 0°47′53″E / 44.8653°N 0.7981°E / 44.8653; 0.7981
Country	France
Region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department	Dordogne
Arrondissement	Bergerac
Canton	Lalinde
Intercommunality	Entre Dordogne et Louyre
Government
• Mayor (2008–2014)	Patrice Masneri
Area1	15.85 km2 (6.12 sq mi)
Population (2008)2	845
• Density	53/km2 (140/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
INSEE/Postal code	24260 /24150
Elevation	35–207 m (115–679 ft) (avg. 49 m or 161 ft)
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.

Mauzac-et-Grand-Castang is a commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France.

Mauzac and Grand-Castang was “born” on January 1, 1973 by combining the former communes of “Mauzac and Saint-Meyme de Rozens” in the valley and “Grand-Castang” on the hillside.

The village has been occupied from prehistoric times, as is evidenced by numerous traces (fragments of axes, scrapers...)

Its past is closely linked with the Dordogne River, which became an important commercial and cultural route in the 18th and 19th centuries. Mauzac is one of the active ports that feed the interior of the region.
Only a few vestiges of the built quay remain, just some paving stones cut in the old-fashioned way, identical to those still seen in Bordeaux.
Constructions of the Lalinde canal to facilitate navigation for the gabares, of the hydroelectric dam, and the arrival of the railway in the 19th century, changed the life of the village considerably.

What to see

The Site of the Theatre:
On the way, the stone huts (bories), including one with a flat roof. Vine growers used them as shelters.
You can see a brick oven called “the peasants’ oven” (“Le four des croquants”). It is not a “communal” oven, but one of the first wood ovens used by the poor peasants called “croquants”.

From this site there is a very pretty view of the town and the river.

The Current Port
The construction of a gabare of the style “Coureau at the beginning of the century”, offers sailing trips with wine-tasting and sampling high-end products of Périgord.

The Railway Bridge
This ochre stone bridge is 254 meters long. It has seven arches, each with a 30-meter opening. 
The distinctive characteristic of this bridge is the elliptical shape of its arches and their low height compared to their width. Its design, daring for the time, offered an important drainage duct for a given width during floods. The solution adopted was to have a minimum of piers and thus a maximum of width for the arches.

The Lake
The dam’s reservoir is a splendid lake, more than 1000 hectares, an attractive centre for fishing, sailing, rowing, canoe and kayaking.
The developed banks are a meeting place for hikers.
The “ferryman’s house” has been made a into showroom. Photographs and postcards of “Mauzac in bygone days” are available there. Upstairs, Electricity of France (EDF) has set up an exhibit about the hydroelectric evolution, and the Fishing and Hunting Federations offer a discovery of the surrounding wildlife.

Source :

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Population

See also

• Communes of the Dordogne department

References

• INSEE

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