Last modified: 2007-05-05 by ivan sache
Keywords: eure | neubourg (le) | church (green) | letter: n (yellow) |
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![[Flag of Le Neubourg]](../images/f/fr-27-ln.gif)
Flag of Le Neubourg - Image by Pascal Vaagnat, 20 March 2007
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The municipality of Le Neubourg (3,922 inhabitants in 2004; 991 ha) is located in Normandy, south of Rouen. It is the small capital of the agricultural region known as "plaine du Neubourg" or "plateau du Neubourg", one of the main area of flax production in France.
In the IX-Xth century, the plateau of Neubourg was settled by Celtic
tribes in the south and Frankish tribes in its median part, whereas its
northernmost part was covered with forests. The Northmen cleared that
part. Le Neubourg was most probably founded by Northmen colonists
around 900-1000 and might have been early named Nyja Borg (new
settlement), although its oldest known name is Novus Burgus (Latin).
The south of the plateau remained a mixed Celtic-Frankish area, and was
eventually cleared around 1000.
The fortress built in Le Neubourg around 1000, too, played a
significant role in the early history of Normandy. It was besieged by
King of England Henry Beauclerc (c. 1068-1135; King in 1100, Duke of
Normandy in 1106), who was the fourth son of William the Conqueror.
After the death of Henry from eating "a surfeit of lampreys", the
Normand barons gathered in Le Neubourg and elected Henry's nephew,
Stephen of Blois (1096-1154) as the King of England instead of Henry's
daughter, Empress Mathilda. The struggle between Stephen and Mathilda
resulted in the civil war known as the Anarchy, settled in 1153 by the
naming of Mathilda's son, Henry Plantagenet, as his heir by Stephen.
On 2 November 1160, the marriage of Marguerite de France (1158-1197),
daughter of King Louis VII, with Henry the Young King (1155-1183,
crowned in 1170 but deceased earlier than his father), son of Henry II
Plantagenet, was celebrated in Le Neubourg. Pope Alexander III allowed
the marriage of the very young children. The castle of Le Neubourg was
sacked in 1198 during the conquest of Normandy by King of France
Philippe-Auguste. During the Hundred Years' War, the castle was seized
and occupied by the English. It was again seized during the Wars of
Religion.
In November 1660, the wealthy Alexandre de Rieux, Marquis de Sourdéac
and Baron of Neubourg, decided to celebrate in his castle the peace
with Spain and Louis XIV's marriage: he commissioned the famous writer
Pierre Corneille (1606-1684) to write a tragi-comedy with dances and
music. The play, called La toison d'or (The Golden Fleece), differs
from Corneille's masterpieces (Le Cid, Horace, Cinna etc.) by the
use of machines (special effects), of which Sourdéac was fond. This
was the first play with such fééries ever played in France.
In 1785, the "Old Castle" was deemed obsolete and suppressed to build a
new village square: the donjon, the chapel and most of the walls were
destroyed, and only the "Maison Neufve", built in the XVIIth century, a
XIIIth-century hall and a tower were kept.
Le Neubourg is the birth place of the politician Jacques Charles Dupont
(1767-1855), who took the name of Dupont de l'Eure after the creation
of the department of Eure in 1790, to be distinguished from another
politician called Dupont. Appointed lawyer at the Parliament of
Normandy, Dupont de l'Eure had a very long career in politics and
justice, being actively involved in the three revolutions of 1789, 1830
and 1848. In contrast to others, he never changed his mind following
the political changes and was considered by both his supporters and
opponents as a model of professional and political integrity.
On 27 February 1792, aged 25, Dupont was elected municipal officer in
Le Neubourg; he was further appointed district administrator in
Louviers, judge at the civil court of Louviers and eventually public
prosecutor at the criminal court of Eure in 1798. On 14 April 1798,
Dupont was elected representative of Eure at the Five-Hundreds Council
set up by the Directoire government. He supported Bonaparte's coup
establishing the Consulate and was appointed president of the criminal
court of Eure and Knight of the Légion d'Honneur, which did not prevent
him to exercize justice independently from the Imperial government.
Napoléon acknowledged his skills and appointed him Knight of the Empire
and president of a chamber of the court of Rouen.
Dupont was vice-president of the Chamber during the Bourbonic
Restauration. Elected representative of Eure in 1817, he joined the
constitutional opposition; accordingly, he was sacked from public
office next year. Dupont was constantly reelected during the
Restauration; he was one of the leaders of the liberal opposition,
campaigning for the liberty of press and signing the "manifesto of the
221" against the Polignac government.
Dupont de l'Eure went to Paris after the fall of Charles X in 1830 and
was convinced by Lafayette to support the July Monarchy, "the best of
the republics". He was minister in the early governments set up by king
Louis-Philippe but the king did not like his independent way of
thinking and speaking. Dupont left the government on 27 December 1830
when Lafayette was forced to retire, and joined again the opposition.
Constantly reelected, Dupont actively contributed to the Banquet
Campaign that started in 1847: the Republican opposition organized
"private" banquets, which were a way to by-pass the law forbidding
public meetings. The banquet presided by Dupont in Le Neubourg on 12
December 1847 has remained famous.
After the fall of Louis-Philippe, the Chamber was invaded by the
opponents on 24 February 1848; Dupont, aged 81, was appointed chairman
and provisory president of the council of the ministers by the
coalition that had seized the power but had not found its leader yet.
Dupont resigned on 4 May 1848, transfering the power from the provisory
government to the newly elected assembly, where he kept sitting until
1849.
On 4 September 1881, Gambetta inaugurated in Le Neubourg a bronze
statue of Dupont made by the sculptor Decorchemont and paid by a
national subscription. The statue was stolen by the Germans in 1942; on
20 June 1948, the president of the national assembly Edouard Herriot,
inaugurated the new statue of Dupont made by Roger Courroy.
The Museum of the Anatomic Ecorché, opened in Le Neubourg in 1995,
is a tribute to Dr. Louis Auzoux (1797-1880), born in Saint-Aubin
d'Ecrosville, near Le Neubourg. Auzoux set up a method of production of
anatomic, skinless models of the human being (écorché) for the purpose
of teaching. Auzoux presented his first model to the Royal Academy of
Medicine in 1822. The Academy issued a positive report in 1824 and
Auzoux was officially commissionned by the Ministry of the Interior;
the next year, he presented his first écorché to the Academy of
Sciences. Mass production started in 1828 in Saint-Aubin, employing 50
workers. In 1830, Auzoux released his Grand Ecorché, which served as
a template for models sold all over the world fot more than 150 ans.
The Auzoux method became a standard for the study of anatomy: in 1845,
Auzoux proposed two smaller and cheaper models to decrease the cost of
his method.
Before Auzoux, anatomy was mostly studied on real bodies, which fed a
nefarious body trade associated with cemetary desecration. Accordingly,
Auzoux was considered as a benefactor: he was congratulated by the King
of England, the Tsar of Russia and even the Pope, who "introduced" a
Grand Ecorché in the Holy See. Don Pedro, Emperor of Brazil, said about
Auzoux: "He is the only man who taught me the little I know in
anatomy."
Auzoux technique involved lead moulds filled with papier-mâché. The
pieces were then assembled with metal wires, fitted together,
sand-papered and covered with paper. The blood vessels were then pasted
and the pieces were painted. Nerves and membranes were added before the
definitive assemblage of the models, which had up to 230 pieces and
showed 2,000 anatomic structures.
Auzoux was also interested in plants and animals and used the same
technique to produce anatomic models of the horse, the fly, the may
bug, the bee, the fern, the sprouting wheat grain, etc. Some 200
original models were given to the museum after the closure of the
factory at Saint-Aubin in 2002.
The municipal museum of Nagasaki shows an Auzoux écorché that was found
a few hundreds meters from the impaction of the atomic bomb on 9 August
1945; when it was realized that it was not a body but a model, it was
decided to keep it as a symbol of all the victims of the bomb.
There is a vivid description of an Auzoux écorché in the novel Bouvard
et Pécuchet by Gustave Flaubert (1881, unfinished). Bouvard and
Pécuchet are two copy-clerks who retire after coming into an
inheritance and decide to flounder through almost every branch of
knowledge. Since they experiment nearly everything but are not able to
analyze properly any of their findings, the book is often considered as
the encyclopaedia of stupidity. In Chapter 3, the two fellows order an
Auzoux écorché that causes a lot of trouble since the villagers believe
they are cutting a real body into pieces and call the police.
Sources:
Ivan Sache, 20 March 2007
Le Neubourg is twinned with the English town of Gillingham (Dorset). In July 2006, the twinning committee met in Le Neubourg. Pictures of the event show members of the commitee, the queen of Neubourg, and the flag of Neubourg. The flag is similar to the municipal logotype, with the elements originally in white on the logotype in yellow on the flag. The building shown on the flag is the massive St. Paul church of Le Neubourg, built at the end of the XVth century, in late Gothical style. The two towers surmonting the gate and the vaults of the church were never finished. The church was burned by the Duke of Parma on 14 March 1592 and restored in 1610. The steeple an the campanile were destroyed in 1940.
Ivan Sache, 20 March 2007