Seilhac (; ) is a commune in the

Corrèze Corrèze (; ) is a département in France, named after the river Corrèze which runs through it. Although its prefecture is Tulle, its most populated city is Brive-la-Gaillarde. Corrèze is located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, on the bo ...

department in central

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 ...

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.

Geography

Location

Seilhac is located approximately equal distance from

Tulle Tulle (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in central France. It is the third-largest town in the former region of Limousin and is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Corrèze, in the Regions of France, region of Nouvelle- ...

Brive-la-Gaillarde Brive-la-Gaillarde (; Limousin dialect of ), commonly known as simply Brive, is a commune of France. It is a sub-prefecture and the largest city of the Corrèze department. It has around 46,000 inhabitants, while the population of the aggl ...

and

Uzerche Uzerche (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Corrèze Departments of France, department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regions of France, region of central France. In 1787, the English writer Arthur Young described the town as "the pearl of ...

. Close to the A89 and A20 motorways, the country of Seilhac represents a natural border between the

and the

Vézère The Vézère (; ) is a 211-km-long river in southwestern France. It is an important tributary to the Dordogne (river), Dordogne. Its source is in the northwestern part of the elevated plateau known as the Massif Central. It flows into the Dordog ...

valleys. The communal territory is thus watered by the Brézou, a tributary of the Vézère, and by the Céronne, a tributary of the Corrèze river. Located on the foothills of the Massif Central, the commune has a hilly terrain characterised by wooded hills and mini-plateau with average heights ranging from 420 to 547 metres in the Puy des Ferrières. The commune stretches over 2 575 hectares and on almost 7 km in the north-south direction and over 8 km in the east-west direction. The

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

, is of a semi-continental type, is characterised by a certain softness due to a southwest exposure. The main urban area is located in the centre of the communal territory.

Neighbouring communes and villages

Population

History

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 ...

vestiges testify to the presence on the territory of the commune. Seilhac is known from the 7th century. The name 'Seilhac' comes from the association of the name of a man ''Sailus'', owner of an agricultural estate, with the suffix of Gallic origin ''-acumen''. The formation of the name of the municipality occurred before the 6th century. Its position at the crossroads of old pathways gave the village its boom. In 1784, Turgot, then administrator of the

Limousin Limousin (; ) is a former administrative region of southwest-central France. Named after the old province of Limousin, the administrative region was founded in 1960. It comprised three departments: Corrèze, Creuse, and Haute-Vienne. On 1 Jan ...

, established the route linking Paris to the centre of France. Thanks to the influence of the Marquis de Seilhac, this road passed through the town of the same name. In 1790, the rank of the borough was confirmed and named as the capital of the canton. On 10 June 1944, the Nazi German Das Reich Division, which had already the day before committed the

Tulle massacre The Tulle massacre was the roundup and summary execution of civilians in the French town of Tulle by the 2nd SS Panzer Division ''Das Reich'' in June 1944, three days after the D-Day landings in World War II. After a successful offensive by ...

and committed on 10 June, the

Oradour-sur-Glane massacre On 10 June 1944, four days after Normandy landings, D-Day, the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in Haute-Vienne in German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi-occupied France was destroyed when 642 civilians, inclu ...

, made arrests in Seilhac and Masléon (

Haute-Vienne Haute-Vienne (; , ; Upper Vienne) is a département in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwest-central France. Named after the Vienne River, it is one of the twelve départements that together constitute Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The prefecture an ...

). Four people from Seilhac are among the 2,152 deportees (all men, including 149 who had been arrested in Tulle on 9 June) from the

Royallieu-Compiègne internment camp The Royallieu-Compiègne was an internment and deportation camp located in the north of France in the city of Compiègne, open from June 1941 to August 1944. French resistance fighters and Jews were among some of the prisoners held in this camp. ...

Compiègne Compiègne (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Oise Departments of France, department of northern France. It is located on the river Oise (river), Oise, and its inhabitants are called ''Compiégnois'' (). Administration Compiègne is t ...

, transported on 2 July to the

Dachau concentration camp Dachau (, ; , ; ) was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, s ...

on the notorious "Death train" (Transport no I.2400).

Economy

The local economy is based on crafts and on

SME ''Sme'' (stylized as ''SME'') or ''Denník Sme'' () is one of the widely-read mainstream broadsheets in Slovakia. Its website is one of the most-visited internet portals in Slovakia. Ownership status In June 2016, the Antimonopoly Office appro ...

s. The agricultural sector is declining despite the persistence of an economy based on quality cattle breeding.

Places and monuments

The architectural heritage whose main elements are the church (

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

and

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

) and the chateau rebuilt at the end of the 19th century (now a private domain) constitutes the principal historical heritage of the commune. The church choir and the chateau garden have been added to the inventory of historic monuments. The town also has a tourist facility at the Bournazel lake, a vast 35 hectares and the infrastructure for leisure and nature.

Notable people

* Henry de Bournazel (1898–1933), Hero of the pacification of Morocco (''l'homme à la tunique rouge''). The Lespinasse family of Bournazel have been located in the communes of Saint-Jal and Seilhac since the 16th century. * Leonard Leymarie (1880–1914), born in Seilhac, executed as an example by the army.

Events

Festival Théâtre à Seilhac

References

{{authority control Communes of Corrèze Corrèze communes articles needing translation from French Wikipedia