- Bourg-Saint-Andéol
French commune
nomcommune=Bourg-Saint-Andéol
région=Rhône-Alpes
département=Ardèche
arrondissement=Privas
canton=Bourg-Saint-Andéol
insee=07042
cp=07700
maire=Serge Martinez
mandat=2001-2008
intercomm=Rhône aux gorges de l'Ardèche
longitude=4.59886997
latitude=44.44816968
alt moy=70 m
alt mini=
alt maxi=
hectares=4374
km²=43.74
sans=7798
date-sans=1999
dens=178.3
date-dens=1999Bourg-Saint-Andéol is a commune in the
Ardèche department in theRhône Valley in southernFrance .ituation
It is the capital of a canton in the arrondissement of
Privas , with a population of circa 8,000 in1999 .It lies directly along the
Rhône River at the south-east end of the "département" ofArdèche , 15 km south of the smallersee of Viviers , 4 km fromPierrelatte eastwards across the river in the "département"Drôme and 10 km from Pont-Saint-Esprit, in the north of the "département" ofGard . 14 km to the south-west starts the nearbyArdèche Gorges inSaint-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 afterSaint Andeolus , the 'apostle of theVivarais ', a disciple ofSt. Polycarp , supposedly arriving from Minor Asia, who evangelized the area under EmperorSeptimius 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, thenVivarais from the mediaeval times after the see ofViviers , a region ofLanguedoc 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 thebishop of Viviers had settled several decades in Renaissance times in the city (the Bishops' Palace). It is the seat of the mother houses of theCongregation of the Presentation of Mary and of theReligious 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 ofWorld 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 ofTricastin , 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 are - already a typicalmediterranean zone - is wine, with theCôtes du Rhône "méridionales" (southern) gathering four other "communes" around the city (Saint-Marcel-d'Ardèche, Saint-Just andSaint-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 ofMithra near the Vauclusian springs of theTourne . 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.Culture
* A national institute of clownery art has been settled in Bourg-Saint-Andéol, the "Institut National des Arts du Clown".
Twin cities
*
Monschau inGermany (Eifel ) since1975
*Albertirsa inHungary since1998
*Gaggiano inItaly since2002 ee also
*
Communes of the Ardèche department References
"Based on the article in the French Wikipedia."
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