Chassenon (; oc, Chassanom) is a commune in the

Charente Charente (; Saintongese: ''Chérente''; oc, Charanta ) is a department in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, south western France. It is named after the river Charente, the most important and longest river in the department, an ...

department in southwestern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

History

The ancient name of the village was ''Cassinomagus''. Situated on the

Agrippan Way ''Via Agrippa'', is any stretch of the network of Roman roads in Gaul that was built by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, to whom Octavian entrusted the reorganization of the Gauls. In all, the Romans built of roads in Gaul. Agrippa's project Agrippa's ...

(

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

- 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 (, , ; oc, Lemòtges, 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 ...

and Saintes. The remains of this

Gallo-Roman Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, language, morals and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context ...

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 o ...

, 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 has mostly destroyed its impact crater, the initial surface expression of the asteroid impact leaving highly deforme ...

, was quarried north-west of Rochechouart near Chassenon, was the stone principally used in the building of the monumental

Roman bath In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughout ...

s 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

References

Communes of Charente Lemovices Charente communes articles needing translation from French Wikipedia {{Charente-geo-stub

History

Population

See also

References