Last modified: 2008-02-23 by ivan sache
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![[Flag of Chatelaillon-Plage]](../images/f/fr-17-cp.gif)
![[Flag of Chatelaillon-Plage]](../images/f/fr-17-c1.gif)
Flag of Châtelaillon-Plage - Images by Ivan Sache, 6 November 2006
Left, as used in the village
Right, as used in a yachting race in Brest, 2005
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The municipality of Châtelaillon-Plage (5,673 inhabitants in 1999; 659 ha) is located on the Atlantic Ocean, 12 km south of La Rochelle. It was once known as Castrum Alionensis and the capital of the pagus alionensis, later the province of Aunis.
Châtelaillon is a very old settlement. Prehistoric remains have been
found on the hill of Angoute. Roman tiles and vases have been excavated
near the railway station and it is believed that a "Castrum Julii"
existed on the hill of Châtelaillon-le-Vieux. An hermitage was probably
built there after Clovis had expelled the Wisigoths, defeated in
Vouillé in 507. This would be the oldest Christian settlement in the
province of Aunis. The viguerie (administrative division) of
Châtelaillon was already famous in 969 for its salt marshes; a castle
was built and a feudal lineage emerged at the same period.
In the XI-XIIth century, the territory of Châtelaillon was limited by
the rivers Sèvre in the north and Charente in the south; it included
the islands of Ré and Aix (but not Oléron). The lords of Châtelaillon
were vassals of the Count of Poitou. The lineage might have been
founded by Alon, who would have given his name to the place (Castrum
Alionensis); around 1050, Isembert I of Châtelaillon was a powerful and
wealthy lord, thanks to salt and wine trade, who supported the
development of monasteries in the region. Eble II of Châtelaillon was
very ambitious and challenged the power of Guillaume, Duke of Aquitaine
and Count of Poitou, who obtained his excommunication by Pope Urban II
(c. 1035-1099, Pope in 1088). His son Isembert the Last followed his
tracks, causing the invasion of his domain by Guillaume, who seized the
fortress of Châtelaillon in 1131. The town declined and was superseded
by La Rochelle as the capital of Aunis.
The domain of Châtelaillon was progressively dismembered and disputed
between the kings of France and England. The 14-tower fortress was
seized several times during the Hundred Years' War, abandoned and
eventually destroyed by the sea in the XVIIth century. The exact
location of the fortress is disputed (see the detailed monography Le
château médiéval de Châtelaillon, by Denis Briand).
Lord of Châtelaillon Savary de Mauléon (1200-1227), knight and poet,
took the English party, went on a Crusade and was made Seneschal of
Poitou when back. In 1224, King of France Louis VIII seized Niort and
La Rochelle and expelled the English from Aunis. Savary attacked La
Rochelle, to no avail. In 1316, Jean Larchevêque, lord of Parthenay and
Châtelaillon, increased the castle and heightened the donjon. However,
the town was seized by the English in 1360 and lord Guillaume
Larchevêque took the English party. He joined back the French party ten
years later but carried on fighting against the burghers of La Rochelle
and the royal power. Châtelaillon was later disputed among Jean II de
Parthenay-Larchevêque, Count Arthur de Richemont and Georges de la
Trémouille. After the death of Richemont in 1459, Châtelaillon was
incorporated to the royal domain; the king transferred the village,
then made of only 38 houses grouped around the castle and the St.
Romard priory, to the Count of Dunois.
At the end of the XVth century, the village and the castle had nearly
disappeared but the domain of Châtelaillon still existed; it was owned
by the Green de Saint Marsault family from 1607 to the French
Revolution. Henri Charles Benjamin Green de Saint-Marsault was made
Baron and Marquis of Châtelaillon in 1780. The medieval village had
totally disappeared in 1784. In 1811, the village had only 145
inhabitants (and even 140 in 1822); the Prefet could not find a
villager with enough education to be Mayor, and appointed the Mayor of
the neighbouring municipality of Angoulins as the Mayor of
Châtelaillon, too. On 29 January 1823, Châtelaillon was incorporated to
Angoulins by a Decree signed by King Louis XVIII.
Châtelaillon resurrected at the end of the XIXth century as a sea
resort. The local railway company Chemin de Fer des Charentes
purchased in 1877 25 ha from the Green de Saint Marsault family in the
village and built a halt on the Saintes-La Rochelle line as well a
housing estate with some 40 houses. From 1882 onwards, Gabriel
Fauconnier, a lawyer from Barbezieux, set up a bigger housing estate
stretching over 42,000 sq. m. He also funded the building of a chapel
and a market hall. The start of the sea resort was rather indifferent,
until Alcide d'Orbigny, a shipowner from La Rochelle, decided in 1886
to invest in Châtelaillon. He set up a landowners' syndicate, which
negociated with the municipality of Angoulins the building of a school
and a post office and with the national railways the building of a
bigger station. The syndicate also decided the building of the casino
on the promenade.
Georges Musset led the fight for the reestablishment of Châtelaillon as
a municipality, which was obtained following the Bill of 19 June 1896
confirmed by Decree on 27 November 1896. Musset was elected Mayor and
carried on the development of the resort; the sea wall protecting the
beach was built in 1897, the town hall was built in 1898, the new post
office was built in 1899 and the village church was increased in 1903.
The population increased from 412 in 1892 to 814 in 1901 and 2,236 in
1936. Most of the new houses were built by merchants and pensioners
from the middle classes. Châtelaillon was officially labelled station
balnéaire climatique (sea health resort) in 1926.
In 1939, Châtelaillon welcomed more than 2,500 war refugees from the
villages of Etzling and Alsting, in Lorraine. The municipality decided
to cut down the plane trees of the promenade in order to provide
firewood. The Germans entered the village on 23 June 1940. They built
on the hill of Boucholers a blockhaus, part of the Atlantic Wall
expected to prevent an allied landing. The Germans resisted for long in
the so-called "Atlantic Pocket" and Châtelaillon was liberated only on
6 May 1945.
In the 1960s, Châtelaillon became progressively a suburbs of La
Rochelle. The casino declined and the beach lost most of its sand, so
that the sea resort was deemed obsolete in the early 1980s. In the late
1980s, the sea resort was redevelopped with the building of hotels and
a thalassotherapy center, the revamping of the beach (with the input
of 800,000 cubic meter of golden sand), of the casino, of the
municipal park and of the promenade.
Source: Petite histoire de Châtelaillon by Eric Birrier (1996), as summarized on the municipal website
Ivan Sache, 6 November 2006
The flag of Châtelaillon-Plage is vertically divided light
blue-yellow-light blue. It can be seen in several places of the
municipality, as reported by Pascal Vagnat (September 2001) and Pascal
Gross (August 2006). The colours recall the sky, the beach and the sea.
During the yachting race Challenge des Maires, held in Brest in 2005, the ship of Châtelaillon used a flag vertically divided light
blue-yellow-white.
Ivan Sache, 6 November 2006