Agris (; ) is a commune in the

Charente Charente (; Saintongese: ''Chérente''; ) is a department in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. It is named after the river Charente, the most important and longest river in the department, and also the r ...

department in the

Nouvelle-Aquitaine Nouvelle-Aquitaine () is the largest Regions of France, administrative region in France by area, spanning the west and southwest of Metropolitan France. The region was created in 2014 by the merging of Aquitaine, Limousin, and Poitou-Charentes ...

region of southwestern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Agritois'' or ''Agritoises'', alternatively ''Agritauds'' or ''Agritaudes''

Geography

Location and access

Agris is located 19 km north-east of

Angoulême Angoulême (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Engoulaeme''; ) is a small city in the southwestern French Departments of France, department of Charente, of which it is the Prefectures of France, prefecture. Located on a plateau overlooking a meander of ...

and 5 km north-west of La Rochefoucauld by the D390 road which passes through the village or the D6 which passes through Pont-d'Agris. The town is also traversed by the D11 from

Vars Vars, VARS may refer to: People * Ellen Marie Vars (born 1957), Norwegian Sami author * Henry Vars (1902–1977), Polish-American musician * John de Vars Hazard (1888–1968) * Láilá Susanne Vars (born 1976), Norwegian Sami lawyer and politic ...

to Chasseneuil-sur-Bonnieure and the D12 to

as well as by minor departmental roads: the D175 from Pont-d'Agris to

Saint-Claud Saint-Claud (; ) is a commune in the Charente department in southwestern France. The small commune is located northeast of Angoulême. Population Personalities The commune is partly the ancestral home of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Prime Ministe ...

by the Bois de Bel-Air, the D40 to the nearby commune of La Rochette, and the D88 (called ''the Road of the Duchess'') from La Rochefoucauld to Jauldes and Tourriers.IGN Map on the

Géoportail Géoportail is a comprehensive web mapping service of the French government that publishes maps and geophysical aerial photographs from more than 90 sources for France and its territories. The service, first developed by two public agencies (the ...

Agris is also 10 km south-west of Chasseneuil-sur-Bonnieure and 16 km south-east of

Mansle Mansle () is a former Communes of France, commune in the Charente Departments of France, department in southwestern France. It is about 20 km north of Angoulême on the main Route nationale 10, N10 road. On 1 January 2023, it was merged into ...

. The nearest railway station is at La Rochefoucauld which is served by the

TER Ter or TER may refer to: Places * River Ter, in Essex, England * Ter (river), in Catalonia * Ter (department), a region in France * Torre (river), (Slovene: ''Ter''), a river in Italy * Ter, Ljubno, a settlement in the Municipality of Ljubno ob ...

between

and

Limoges Limoges ( , , ; , locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region. Situated o ...

. Angoulême Airport is 10 km south-west of the commune.

Hamlets and localities

The commune has many hamlets to the north-west of the village in the Tardoire valley. The main ones are ''Pont-d'Agris'', located on the right bank and at the crossroads of the D6 and D11 and ''La Grange'' located on the left bank and on the D11 up to the heights of the village. On the right bank there is also the ''Les Camus'', ''les Fougères'', ''la Côte'', ''la Brousse'', ''les Garrauds'', and on the left bank ''le Monac'', ''chez Goby'', ''les Martonnauds'', ''les Chevilloux'', which are almost part of the village. There are also ''les Vieilles Vaures'' in the south and ''les Treize Vents'' in the north There are also many farms. The part of the forest west of the village is uninhabited.

Neighbouring communes and villages

Google Maps
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Geology and terrain

The soil consists of

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

dating from the middle and upper

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

period (

Callovian In the geologic timescale, the Callovian is an age and stage in the Middle Jurassic, lasting between 165.3 ± 1.1 Ma (million years ago) and 161.5 ± 1.0 Ma. It is the last stage of the Middle Jurassic, following the Bathonian and preceding the ...

Kimmeridgian In the geologic timescale, the Kimmeridgian is an age in the Late Jurassic Epoch and a stage in the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 154.8 ±0.8 Ma and 149.2 ±0.7 Ma (million years ago). The Kimmeridgian follows the Oxfordian ...

from east to west). The plateau east of the Tardoire Valley is covered with alterite and

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

from the Massif Central close by (10 km east) and deposited during the

Tertiary Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to: * Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago * Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...

period. The valley is covered with

alluvium Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

and along the edges with sand and gravel terraces dating from the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...

period. In the Braconne Forest there are excavations of ''Fosse Limousine'', ''Fosse Mobile'' and ''Fosse Rode'',The ''Fosse Dufay'' where ''Trou des Duffaits'' is found is located at La Rochette, 100 metres north of the commune which opens up in the form of a winding gallery in the upper reef. These collapses, sinkholes, galleries, and concretions form a caving site which is part of the La Rochefoucauld

karst Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

.H. Coquand, 1858 The relief of the commune is that of a low plateau sloping gently towards the valley of the Tardoire, with an average altitude of 110 m. The highest point is at an altitude of 134 m to the south-west in the Braconne forest near Gros Fayant. The lowest point is 70 m located on the Tardoire opposite the town of La Rochette. The village is 80 m above sea level.

Hydrography

The commune is traversed by the

Tardoire The Tardoire () is a river in southwestern France, left tributary to the river Bonnieure. It is long. Its source is in Châlus, in the Haute-Vienne ''departments of France, département''. It flows into the Bonnieure near Saint-Ciers-sur-Bonnieure ...

and

Bandiat The Bandiat () is a small river in western France, a left tributary of the Tardoire. It flows through the Haute-Vienne, Dordogne and Charente departments. It is long. Geography The Bandiat begins its course just south of the Puy Chauvet (488 m), ...

Valleys. Bandiat Valley is almost always dry in summer because its waters are absorbed by the successive

sinkholes A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water ...

of the La Rochefoucauld

so never reach the Tardoire Valley. The base of the Valley is nothing more than a ditch along a path between the ''Vieilles Vaures'' and the village. In winter the water still reaches the Vieilles Vaures but quickly sinks underground. Tardoire Valley is also often dry in summer for the same reasons.

Climate

As in three-quarters of the department in the south and west, the climate is

oceanic Oceanic may refer to: *Of or relating to the ocean *Of or relating to Oceania **Oceanic climate **Oceanic languages **Oceanic person or people, also called "Pacific Islander(s)" Places * Oceanic, British Columbia, a settlement on Smith Island, ...

Aquitaine.

Dialect Area

The commune is in the Limousin region and marks the boundary with the

Saintongeais Saintongeais (; endonym: ''séntunjhaes'') is a dialect of Poitevin–Saintongeais spoken halfway down the western coast of France in the former provinces of Saintonge, Aunis and Angoumois, all of which have been incorporated into the current ...

local dialect (to the West).

Toponymy

There are two hypotheses for the origin of the name Agris: #Agris comes from the Latin ''Acrisium fundum'' or ''villa Acrisii'' meaning that the village was built around the property of a rich Gallo-Roman named ''Acrisius'' #Agris comes from the Latin ''ager'' meaning "field" In the Middle Ages, Agris was called ''Agresio''.

History

The remains of eight people have been exhumed (five adults and three children) who were hunter-gatherers from the

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...

period around 7000 BC. Aerial photos reveal traces of ancient occupation in an undetermined era. It is certain that the occupation of the site was very ancient as evidenced by the discovery of the

Agris Helmet The Agris Helmet () is a ceremonial Celtic helmet from BC that was found in a cave near Agris, Charente, France, in 1981. It is a masterpiece of Celtic art, and would probably have been used for display rather than worn in battle. The helm ...

, a ceremonial

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

helmet dated from the 4th century BC. which was found in 1981 during archaeological excavations in Perrats Cave. This site's primary occupation dated to the

period in 7000 BC. and was reused from the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

period in the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

to the second Iron Age in the

Roman period The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

and also during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

.''Agris Helmet''
Arbre celtique, consulted on 20 March 2010 In the same site in the Perrats Cave pottery of the second Iron Age was found.

Administration

Agris was created in 1793 as part of the canton of JandesIt is spelled this way on the Cassini website but it is probably meant to be ''Jaudes''. and the district of La Rochefoucauld but in 1801 changed to the Canton of La Rochefoucauld in the

Arrondissement of Angoulême An arrondissement (, , ) is any of various administrative divisions of France, Belgium, Haiti, and certain other Francophone countries, as well as the Netherlands. Europe France The 101 French departments are divided into 342 ''arrondissemen ...

List of Successive Mayors of Agris

Population

Agris had its peak population in 1851 then lost 43% of its population from 1851 to 1921. Since then the population has stabilized around 700-800 people.

Distribution of Age Groups

Percentage Distribution of Age Groups in Agris and Charente Department in 2017 Source: INSEEÉvolution et structure de la population en 2017: Commune d'Agris (16003)
/ref>

Economy

During the 19th century three stone quarries were operating in the commune: ''Chez les Foucauds'' in ''La Moussière'' and ''Chez les Fouilloux''.

Shops

Two grocery stores, a tobacco shop, a restaurant, a bakery and a hairdresser.

Trades

A large number of tradesmen and entrepreneurs are present in the commune: electrician, motor garage, carpenter, mason, painter, plasterer-tiler, plumber, and agricultural workers.

Tourism

There are three rural cottages, with two open all year.

Facilities, services and local life

Agris has a post office.

Education

The school is an intercommunal teaching group between Agris and La Rochette. Agris has the Primary School and La Rochette only the elementary school. The Agris school is located in the village.

Sport and activities

The US football club of Agris plays in the Marc Labrousse Stadium. There is also an association for playing

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

and

pétanque Pétanque (, ; ; ) is a sport that falls into the category of boules sports (along with Raffa (boules), raffa, bocce, boule lyonnaise, Bowls, lawn bowls, and Crown green bowls, crown green bowling). In these sports, players or teams play thei ...

, an

equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or riding in British English) Examples of this are: *Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes in ...

centre located in ''Chez Pelet'', a quad bike club, a motor-cycle club, a hunting society, a club for seniors, and an association of parents. The commune has a leisure centre and a library. There is also an autocross circuit that hosted the championship of France several times but it has been closed since 2010.

Health

There are two general practitioners and one home help service.

Culture and heritage

Civil heritage

*The Casque d'Agris (Agris helmet) is a ceremonial

helmet dating from the 4th century BC which was found in 1981 during archaeological excavations in the Perrats Cave, a

Late Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

site. The helmet was made with a shell of riveted iron covering the neck and gold plating on bronze decorated with plant motifs. It is displayed in the Angoulême museum. *The Fouilloux site includes a moated structure dating to the Middle Bronze Age widely open to the west where stone ballast fills the moat. *The Statue of the seated god of Agris shows the existence of Gallo-Roman "leftist gods". *The Chateau of Fouilloux has a portal and Puyssaguet enclosure which are notable.

Religious Heritage

The commune has two sites that are registered as historical monuments: *The Croix de la Tuilière (Tuilière Cross) is a wayside cross located at the intersection of the local road from Granges to Le Bourg and the local road from Granges to Le Chevilloux. *The Parish Church of Saint Caprais (12th century). It depended on the priory of Saint-Florent de La Rochefoucauld. The church contains three items that are registered as historical objects: **A

Harmonium The pump organ or reed organ is a type of organ that uses free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal strips mounted in a frame. Types include the pressure-based harmonium, the suction reed organ (which employs a va ...

(1860) **A Winged

Tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle (), also known as the Tent of the Congregation (, also Tent of Meeting), was the portable earthly dwelling of God used by the Israelites from the Exodus until the conquest of Canaan. Moses was instru ...

(17th century) **A

Stoup A holy water font or stoup is a vessel containing holy water which is generally placed near the entrance of a church. It is often placed at the base of a crucifix or other Christian art. It is used in Catholic, as well as many Lutheran and Anglica ...

for holy water and an

Aspergillum An aspergillum ("little sprinkler", less commonly, aspergilium, aspergil or asperger) is a Christian liturgical implement used to sprinkle holy water. It comes in three forms: a freshly cut hyssop branch, a brush-like bundle that is dippe ...

(18th century)

Environmental heritage

The Braconne Forest, the

Valley, and the

Valley are of great interest for flora and fauna. They are a

Natura 2000 Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectiv ...

zone.

Legend

Legend of the mobile pit: a man who killed his father and wanting to hide his corpse wandered all night to find this pit which concealed itself and moved constantly to avoid being complicit in the

patricide Patricide (or paternal homicide) is the act of killing one's own father. The word ''patricide'' derives from the Latin language, Latin word ''pater'' (father) and the suffix ''-cida'' (cutter or killer). Patricide is a sub-form of parricide, wh ...

. Exhausted, the man surrendered to police of La Rochefoucauld in the morning.Walks and Stories in Charente, éditions du Soleil de Minuit, 2002,

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

Agris official website

* ttp://charente.angouleme.free.fr/angouleme/la_rochefoucauld/agris/index.html Agris Catillus Carol, 1999
Amigos del Románico, Descriptive page on the Romanesque Church of Saint-Caprais

Agris on Géoportail
National Geographic Institute (IGN) website
''Agris'' on the 1750 Cassini Map
{{Authority control Communes of Charente