Hiers-Brouage (French pronunciation: ​[jɛʁs bʁuaʒ]) is a former commune in the Charente-Maritime department, southwestern France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the new commune Marennes-Hiers-Brouage.[2]

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (December 2008) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the French article. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Hiers-Brouage]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|fr|Hiers-Brouage}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Hiers-Brouage
Part of Marennes-Hiers-Brouage
Citadel
Coat of arms
Location of Hiers-Brouage
Hiers-Brouage Show map of France Hiers-Brouage Show map of Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Coordinates: 45°51′02″N 1°04′28″W
Country	France
Region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department	Charente-Maritime
Arrondissement	Rochefort
Canton	Marennes
Commune	Marennes-Hiers-Brouage
Area 1	31.35 km2 (12.10 sq mi)
Population  (2019)[1]	606
• Density	19/km2 (50/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal code	17320
Elevation	0–26 m (0–85 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

History

Brouage was founded in 1555 by Jacques de Pons on the Bay of Biscay facing the Atlantic Ocean. The town was founded on swampy land which had previously been underwater. Its name, "Brouage," comes from the surrounding mixture of water and clay, which was called "broue".[3]

Its economy was based on salt and access to the sea. Brouage was known for producing salt that was black in colour, which was often sold to the royal family. Brouage exported large quantities of salt by land and sea as early as the 15th century.[4]

The town was fortified between 1630 and 1640 by Cardinal Richelieu as a Catholic bastion in order to fight against the neighbouring Protestant town of La Rochelle. Gradually the harbour silted up in the last part of the 17th century, leaving the town stranded and useless as a port. It fell into ruin.

The town's most celebrated son is the French navigator Samuel de Champlain, who lived there when young, before being the co-founder of French settlement in Acadia (1604–1607) and Quebec (1608–1635). Cartographer Charles Leber du Carlo lived in Brouage at the same time and may not have taught the art of map-making to the young Champlain.[5]

In 1825 Brouage was joined to the village of Hiers, 2.5 km (1.6 mi) away, forming the commune of Hiers-Brouage.

Population

Sights

• The village church dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul built in 1608. Since 1982, several stained glass windows have been installed by Quebec and New Brunswick to commemorate historical figures of New France, including Samuel de Champlain who was living when young in the village.
• The Samuel de Champlain Museum.
• The walls of the ramparts of the citadel of Brouage.
• The Porte royale or King's gate which gave access to the quais.
• The Saint-Luc powderhouse (poudrière) with four flying-buttresses.
• The Halle aux vivres or Warehouse built to store goods and supplies for the citadel.

See also

• Communes of the Charente-Maritime department

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hiers-Brouage.

• Official site
• Tourist office, with pages in english
• Hiers-Brouage

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На других языках

[ru] Йер-Бруаж