Pélussin

Pélussin is a common French, located in the department of the the Loire and the area the Rhone-Alps. Pélussin consists of 3 districts: Notre-Dame, Crosses and all in high Virieu.

On the Eastern side of the solid mass of Pilat, in immense amphitheater the communes are staged which form the canton of Pélussin. Pélussin draws its name from the fruit of the plum tree, called " vulgarly; pelosse" , very abundant in the area.

Gentilé

The Pélussinoises and the Pélussinois

Geography

The commune is located in edge of the Eastern plate of the Solid mass of the Pilat. It overhangs the Valley of the Rhone and fact part of the Regional natural park of Pilat. The average altitude of Pélussin is approximately 450 meters, but the village is staged very fast inclined since deep the valley of the Rhone (140 m) until Crêt of Oeillon (1365 m).

History

The Roman epoch

Jules César, at the time of its conquest of the Gaulle, drove out the Allobroges Vienna which became " Colonia Julia". As of the assassination of César in the year 44, Allobroges took again their city with the Romans. The exiled Romans of Vienna went themselves from there to found the town of Lyon (Lugdunum).

The Romans looked after the water supply of their cities, and were quickly attracted by the crystalline and pure water of the mountain. With the first or the second century, the imperial engineers built, of Pilat with Lugdunum, the Aqueduc of Gier. This aqueduct of 80 km comprised many works of art, and especially what makes it single in the Roman world: four siphons of which one which crosses in underground the valley of Durèze. In 177 began with Lugdunum the persecutions from the Christians. The legend reports that at that time, an small group of Christians took refuge in the mountains and, more precisely, with " Pulicinus ultra rhodanum" (Pélussin) where they founded the church of Notre-Dame under ground. In 280, the emperor Probus authorized the extension of the culture of the vine out of Italy and the vine, consequently, developed on the well directed slopes of Pilat as with Condrieu and Chavanay. Roman epoch, Pilat also inherits the culture of the Prunier S, of the Châtaignier S, the Pêcher S and the Cerisier S.

The year thousand

The written history of Pilat of the years thousand is especially ecclesiastic with three religious foundations:

priory of St Saver in Street founded in 1061 by Artaud d' Argental and devoted in 1100 by Guy of Burgundy, archbishop of Vienna and future pope Calixte II.
the abbey of Vallenoite, to St Etienne, in 1184, by the will of Benoite of Valette and by assaimage of the Cistercian abbey of Bonnevaux into Dauphine.
and, in 1280, foundation of Chartreuse of Holy Cross in Pilat by Béatrix of the Tower in remembering his/her Guillaume husband of Roussillon died in Crusade with St Jean d' Acre.

Pilat and the Savoy dispute the birthplace of Pierre de Tarentaise: born in 1124 in Tarentaise beside Bessat, it was to become pope under the name of Innocent V. He died in Italy with Arezzo in 1276.

In addition to the village-chartreuse of co. Cross, one can admire the Romance elements of the church of Borough the Argental one or the vault of Jurieu close co. Cross.

In 1324, Malleval knows its hour of glory with the marriage of Renaud de Forez and Marguerite of Savoy. This one, wire junior by Jean de Forez, was intended initially at the priesthood but this state not enabling him to appease its ambitions, it renonça in an ecclesiastical state to initially be able to marry and then enjoy the dowry of his wife. Become rich, it did not have of cease to increase its field by the purchase of the parishes of Chavanay and Pélussin and to embellish its castle and its town of Malleval which comprised with its apogee to 300 houses. Unfortunately, this period was of short duration: Renaud did not leave a heir and became insane after being made prisoner with the battle of Brignais (in 1361 this battle opposed the royal troops to tards-come, band of brigands which foamed the kingdom of France at the end of the 100 year old war). In fact, the capital of the drill-Viennese was transferred to Bourg the Argental one.

Wars of religion

They left many traces in Pilat, which had the unhappy privilege to be with a " frontière" nun with, in the south, Protestants of Annonay and, in north, in Lyon and Vienna, catholics.

Among all the battles and treasons of this period, one will retain the name of the battle of Bessat which, in 1572, opposed the two camps and, especially, the end of Malleval which had its misfortune in Jean de Fay, lord of Virieu.

Initially, Jean de Fay, catholic, fought the reform in Languedoc then, become Protestant and benefitting from the disorders created by the war, the area of Pilat with its troops starting from Malleval foamed. To put an end to all these plunderings, in 1574, Christophe of St Chamond, governor of the Vivarais, dismantled houses, walls and the castle of Malleval.

At the same time, the industry of silk settled in Pilat with Antoine Gayotti who, originating in Bologna, settled in 1536 with Valla in Giers. It was followed by its compatriot Horace Benay in 1572, and his/her son Jean-Antoine Benay settled in Virieu in 1586, to profit from the protection of the castle of Virieu which had just been rebuilt by Jean de Fay who was all at the same time become again catholic and peaceful.

The century of Louis XIV

The industry of the Soie allowed Pélussin and its area to pass without too many damage large- thecentury which was especially for others one century of famines and epidemics, famines dependant at the same time on bad climatic conditions and with epidemics which developed of as much better than the bodies was badly nourished. At that time, the famines could hardly be fought so much were heavy the systems of taxes and grantings, with the result that once the transported goods, those were not any more accessible prices. On the other hand, better those which lived worked in industry, like that of silk, and thus had nothing with the whims time. In any event, in her globality, the population of Pilat decreased throughout the XVII century.

In 1769, Jean-Jacques Rousseau comes to herborize in trimmings, but it did not collect almost any of the 500 different plants which exist in the solid mass: it had come at the bad season!

The war of the bell-towers

The XIXe century was marked, in Pélussin, by the war of the bell-towers. At that time, the parish church being too small, it was decided to halfway build a new church between the districts of Notre-Dame and Virieu. The inhabitants of Notre-Dame tried to be opposed to this decision, they went even until assembling the guard around the old church, to hide the bell in a well, to threaten to change religion into making come Protestant Pasteur. The calm one returned when the decision was made to separate Pélussin in two parishes: Notre-Dame and Midsummer's Day.

The Wooden-soled shoe

In 1893, the population of Pilat having increased and all the arms which cannot be employed, the district council of the Loire decided the creation of a railway line of St Etienne in Pélussin, to make it possible to young people to engage in the factories of the valley of the Giers. Eight years after the Wooden-soled shoe arrived at Pélussin. It was a rather rustic train which circulated on a single track and sinuous. Of St Etienne to Grand Cross (Covered it), the Wooden-soled shoe borrowed the way of the Tramaye then, for the Terrace, the way describing a kind of hairpin, it was necessary to carry out a change of engine.

Two accidents are to be regretted: in 1909 the Wooden-soled shoe struck a tram with Horme (assessment: 1 dead 20 wounded) and, on June 1st 1912, to 21:15, in station of Pélussin, the train left its rails and lands 7 meters lower in a potato field. This train was prolonged until Maclas in 1917. This prolongation required the construction of two viaducts, largest being long of 170m and high 58 meters. The train was replaced by a service of bus in 1931. In the field of transport, one notes two major facts: in 1874 the inauguration of the suspended bridge on the the Rhone with Chavanay (it fallai to pay a toll of 2 pennies until in 1881) and also the line railroad Lyon-Tournon in 1879.

Modern times

XIXe and XXe centuries were especially the centuries of industry. Indeed, the inhabitants of the Pilat overcame the rivers descending of the Crêt of Oeillon to create many factories of grinding and weaving. The name of the town of St Julien Molin Molette keeps the trace of it. In 1840, 2000 people worked with grindings of silk and one counted 16000 mulberry trees. In 1905, this activity employed more 1200 people, mainly young women who came to constitute their dowry there. This perdure activity until our days in the form of traditional workshops or high technology.

Since the war, the declining work of silk, in 1983, a young dairy engineer from the Dauphine, Jean-Claude Guilloteau, inventor of a new manufactoring process of cheese, chooses Pélussin to install the manufacture of sound " Paving stone of Affinois". In full extension, this industry gives to the country a new rise, by creating many jobs and carrying the reputation of quality of Pélussin in all France and abroad.

Museums

Exposure of art to the castle.
House of the Regional natural park of Pilat.

Resources and productions

Agriculture

Vine, orchards.
bovine Breedings.
Dairy products and cheese dairies.

Local life

Fair: January 2nd, February 3rd, 1st Monday of March, April 30th, May 26th, June 24th, 1st Monday of September.
Gone saturdays (Place of the Town hall), and Sunday (Place of the crosses).
local Fair/Vogue: Sunday following on July 14th.
Festival of Apple: November 11th.
Visits of the castle of Virieu.

Leisures/Tourism

Swimming pool discovered and heated.
pedestrian Paths: paths GR7 and GR42.
Camp-site-caravanning with the farm. Rural lodgings. Country cottages holidays.
Craft industry: glazed ground.
Cinema of the crosses
Media library
the very honourable Sensei Chouny Ao, representing for France of the Gensei-Ryu, officiates with the Dojo of Pélussin.

Administration

Fact part of the community of the communes of Rhone-native Pilat.

Demography

Places and monuments

old Bourg, markets of 16th out of wooden, doors old, with the district of Virieu (IF).
Old castle of Virieu 17th and vault (IMH): doubled round tower of a high watch tower.
Mill of Virieu.
Old people's home: 2 reliquaries 17th, table Louis XVI.
Vestiges of the feudal castle of Valette.
2 large viaducts of the " tacot".

néo-Romance Church rebuilt about 1870, imposing building: large bell-tower in frontage, Romance crypt, statue
Our-Lady-under-Ground 17th, silver ciborium.
Vault of Virieu 17th.
Holy-Madeleine Vault, vestiges of a hermitage 17th.
Cross of sandstone 16th with Massed.

Crêt of Oeillon (1365 m), panorama on the valley of the Rhone and the Alps.
Forests of fir trees.
Regional natural park of Pilat - House of the Park (mill of Virieu): garden of observation, diaporama, space child.

Personalities related to the commune

the abbot Joseph Paret, born in 1807 in Pélussin, was one of the pioneers of Louisiana in the United States and creator of the parish of Red Stick. During the American Civil War, it returned to live in its family with Virieu where it died in 1872.

Joseph Voron, originating in Pélussin but born in Lyon in 1874. Obstetrician, professor at the medical college, member of the Academy of Medicine, director of the maternity of the Hotel God and Charity in Lyon.

Gaston Baty, born in Pélussin on May 26th, 1885, was the director many theaters of which that of Montparnasse. Impassioned puppets for which he wrote several scenarios. Dies in Pélussin on October 13rd, 1952. Gaston Baty died in the autumn of 1952 in his house of Pélussin. He had also been born 67 years there earlier. He is incontestably one of the most important men of French theater of the 20th century. Member of the Trust with Charles Dullin, Louis Jouvet and Georges Pitoëff, it was certainly atypical and more the protestor of these directors dependant between them by a pact " of regard and respect réciproque". He is the only one not to be an actor but he is undoubtedly one of the large visionaries of the French theater. Author of its decorations, it has the worship of the scenic image which it illuminates by beams of light. He does not mistake the text, he it lit by a true work of illuminator. It is without any doubt one of the most important ligériens of the 20th century that we celebrate thus.

Henri Collomb, born in 1907 with Pélussin, assistant of the mayor of Lyon, vice-president of the General advice of the Rhone of 1959 to 1982, regional adviser and deputy of the Rhone.

Michel Folliasson, born on January 12th, 1925 in Pélussin (the Loire) Member of the Academy of the Art schools, Grand Prix of Rome, Architect DPLG of the higher school national of the Art schools of Paris. Professor of theory and foreman at the school of Architecture of Nancy (of 1957 to 1967), it is named Architecte as a chief of the civil buildings and palates national in 1969. He built the Prefecture of the department of the Seine-Saint-Denis, the experimental and residential whole of the European Coal and Steel Community in Creusot, the model factory of dairy in Auxerre, the school of architecture of Nancy, the Tower Neptune, the Public library of Metz, the Center of thalassotherapy of Lorient, the seat of the FO trade union in Paris.

Jean-Paul Chavas, born in Pélussin in 1951, American economist, doctor of rural economy, resident in Madison in the United States. It is one of the American economists more the sides. It published several English books translated in many countries. He works with academics at the world level.

Hippolyte Berlier, born on March 10th, 1919 in Pélussin, in the hamlet of Fanchises, of a family of 8 children, first Bishop of Niger, entered to Rédemptoristes in 1932. He lives in the middle of resistance then to the first Division Armor-plated for the release of France, then one finds it in Niger. As from 1950, he is successively director of the schools, religious leader of the vice province redemptorist and finally Evêque of Niamey. He saw his retirement in Niger at the Tuaregs, jusquà his death on September 22nd, 1992. He never forgot his origins and each one in Pélussin remembers its regular visits in its 404 family registered in Niger. It is buried in front of the cathedral of Niamey where his/her many Christian friends and Moslems often come to collect themselves.

Alexandre Julien, born in Lyon in 1823 and Maire of Pélussin of 1852 to 1870. Deputy of the Loire, member of the superior council of 1 ' Agriculture, member of the Council of Banque de France, administrator of the Credit Lyonnais.En 1849, it marries Helene Beating of Pommerol. He makes build the family home in 1865. One owes him also the construction of the bridge of Chavanay like that of the boarding school St Jean de Pélussin.

Antoine Eyraud, benefactor of the commune of Pélussin, following a gift of 30 hectares of forest.

the sisters Martin (Etiennette and Jeanne): bienfaitrices, they founded the hospital of Pélussin

Culture

The film " Appalling Gardens " was partly turned in Pélussin, on the Place of the Crosses .

See too

Common of the Loire
Massive of Pilat

External bonds

Pélussin on the site of the national geographical Institute
Pélussin on the site of INSEE
Pélussin on the site of Quid
Localization of Pélussin on a chart of France and communes bordering
Plan on Pélussin on Mapquest
a page supplements on the history, the life and tourism with Pélussin.
local Information on the area of Pélussin
Pélussin and Pilat

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