Aigrefeuille-d'Aunis

Sister cities

• Velden

History

Although in Gallo-Roman times, a Roman road ran to the south of Aigrefeuille, no evidence of human occupation of this time was noted there. It was not until the period of the High Middle Ages that the first traces can be found. This Roman road was called "Le Grand Chemin" (The Great Way) and is well documented in the Table of Peutinger and archaeological excavations connected Angériacum to the current Saint-Jean d'Angely, which is the presumed site of the Port du Plomb at L'Houmeau via Muron and Le Thou. Thus, the earliest known traces of Aigrefeuille d'Aunis are from the early medieval period, i.e. the 12th century: almost the same time as that of La Rochelle, following the fall of Châtelaillon in 1130. Aigrefeuille d'Aunis is a medieval creation, following the period of the great forest clearing of the Middle Ages. The region of Aunis, being heavily wooded, was cleared very late, from only the 11th to the 12th centuries and this was a measure of the population increase and the prosperity of the vineyards. A witness to this evolution was the Saint-Étienne church, which was built in the middle of the 12th century in the heart of the original village but rebuilt several times in the Middle Ages, particularly in 1360 and especially the 15th century, when it was restored and strengthened after the Hundred Years' War. In the Middle Ages, Aigrefeuille d'Aunis was at the centre of a large clearing in the forest. The ancient Forest of Argenson, which separated the old provinces of Aunis and Poitou, was gradually reduced and extensive clearings were carried out mainly for vineyards which, at Aigrefeuille, were at the southern limit of the plain of Aunis. At the turn of the 13th century, Aigrefeuille became a lordship that had already acquired a certain importance in…

Geography

Aigrefeuille d'Aunis is a small town of 4,037 inhabitants (2017), The commune of Aigrefeuille d'Aunis is traversed south of the urban area by the Highway D939 which connects La Rochelle to Périgueux, via Surgères and Angoulême. The commune is connected to Rochefort by the main road D5 which follows the old railway line (closed in 1953). Aigrefeuille d'Aunis is traversed in the south of the urban area by the Poitiers-La Rochelle railway line. It is double tracked and was electrified in 1993 to allow passage of the TGV to La Rochelle Station. The commune of Aigrefeuille d'Aunis officially became an urban commune after the population census of 1982. In his communal notice that he issued for Aigrefeuille, M. A. Gautier informed his contemporaries that the commune had ten villages and eight hamlets, besides the town, a situation that stood in 1839. Today, around Aigrefeuille the villages of La Taillee, and Bois-Gaillard are clustered on the right bank of the Virson stream. On the left bank in the south-west is the large village of La Fragnée and on the right bank is the village of Le Pere. In the south, the village Le Grand Chemin establishes a connection between the urban residential area of Aigrefeuille, the industrial area of Fief-Girard, and the station district along the Avenue d'Aunis, itself extended by the Grand Chemin. In the Southeast of the conurbation and separated by the small rustic wooded valley of Virson, the residential areas have spread around the ancient village of L'Angle and have merged with the villages of Bois-Gaillard and La Taillée. To the northeast of Aigrefeuille is the village of Frace, which gave its name to the lake, gradually submerged by two major urban housing estates (Le Hameau du Lac and Le Fief des Dames). Away from the central…