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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Mornas

Mornas (French pronunciation: [mɔʁnas]; Occitan: Mornats) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.

Name

The settlement is attested as Morenatus in 822, Murenatis in 837 and Mornatz ca. 1178.

History

Remains of the fortress of Mornas, high above the village, in 2021

In the 12th century, the Counts of Toulouse, then in possession of the fortress, rebuilt and strengthened it. In 1229, with the Treaty of Paris, Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse, handed over the Comtat Venaissin to the Holy See. Mornas was thus a lordship of the archbishops of Arles until 1274, and then of the Holy See, which enfeoffed the lands to various lords. In 1430, Pellegrin Brunelli, a gentleman of the household of Pope Martin V, had to surrender the castle to the army of Cardinal de Foix.

The Wars of Religion brought severe troubles to Mornas, notably in the form of two "sauteries", or "pertuisanades". In 1562, the Calvinists led by the Marquis de Montbrun seized the castle, massacred women and children, and threw the garrison from the top of the ramparts onto halberds below; there was only one survivor. In 1568, after Mornas had been taken by François de La Baume, the Protestant garrison suffered the same fate.

From the 17th century, Mornas was a centre for growing tobacco.

Before the French Revolution, the king of France allowed the seigneur of Mornas to lease the woodland to a farmer, who cleared it, thus depriving the village of its supply of firewood.

The Gate of Saint Nicholas in the Old Village

Population

Historical population
YearPop.±% p.a.
1968 1,103—    
1975 1,189+1.08%
1982 1,737+5.56%
1990 2,087+2.32%
1999 2,209+0.63%
2007 2,248+0.22%
2012 2,334+0.75%
2017 2,407+0.62%
Source: INSEE

See also

References

  1. ^ "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 13 September 2022.
  2. ^ "Populations de référence 2022" (in French). The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 19 December 2024.
  3. ^ Nègre, Ernest (1990). Toponymie générale de la France. Librairie Droz. p. 83. ISBN 978-2-600-02883-7.
  4. ^ Jean Michel Rouand, Château de Mornas (Vaucluse), accessed 12 January 2025 (in French)
  5. ^ Roger Pierre, « Libertés et contraintes des communautés villageoises dans les pays de la Drôme à la veille de la Révolution » ("Freedoms and constraints of village communities in the Drôme region on the eve of the Revolution"), Études drômoises No. 64 (March 1985), p. 20
  6. ^ Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE