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 ...
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 ...
.
History
The ancient name of the village was ''Cassinomagus''.
Situated on the Agrippan Way (
Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
- Saintes), Cassinomagus was, in the Roman times, important enough to be mentioned on the mediaeval Peutinger map as one of the two secondary towns between
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 ...
and Saintes. The remains of this
Gallo-Roman
Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization (cultural), Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire in Roman Gaul. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, Roman culture, language ...
town lay on about 300 hectares and include a sanctuary of about 25 hectares. This sanctuary consisted of several monuments: a big temple, two small ones, a theatre (amphitheatre ?), and thermal baths. The baths, which are very well preserved, can be visited.
The
impactite
Impactite is rock created or modified by one or more impacts of a meteorite. Impactites are considered metamorphic rock, because their source materials were modified by the heat and pressure of the impact. On Earth, impactites consist primarily ...
, which is part of the
Rochechouart impact structure
Rochechouart impact structure or Rochechouart astrobleme is an impact structure in France. Erosion has over the millions of years mostly destroyed its impact crater, the initial surface expression of the asteroid impact, leaving highly deformed ...
, was quarried north-west of Rochechouart near Chassenon, was the stone principally used in the building of the monumental Roman baths of Cassinomagus.Cécile Doulan et al., eds, ''Dossier: Cassinomagus: l'agglomération et ses thermes. Résultats des recherches récentes (2003-2010) à Chassenon (Charente)'' (Bordeaux: Fédération Aquitania, 2012. . Offprint from ''Aquitania'' vol. 28, 2012)
Population
See also
*
Communes of the Charente department
The following is a list of the 359 communes of the Charente department of France on 1 January 2025.
The communes cooperate in the following intercommunalities (as of 2025):Rochechouart crater