Avaray

Avaray
Coat of arms
Avaray
Location within Centre-Val de Loire region  Avaray
Coordinates: 47°43′24″N 1°33′55″E / 47.7233°N 1.5653°ECoordinates: 47°43′24″N 1°33′55″E / 47.7233°N 1.5653°E
Country	France
Region	Centre-Val de Loire
Department	Loir-et-Cher
Arrondissement	Blois
Canton	Mer
Government
• Mayor (2008–2014)	Jean-François Mézille
Area^1	13.88 km^2 (5.36 sq mi)
Population (2009)^2	730
• Density	53/km^2 (140/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	41008 / 41500
Elevation	75–118 m (246–387 ft) (avg. 106 m or 348 ft)
^1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. ^2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Avaray is a commune in the Loir-et-Cher department in central France.

History

Avaray is a French territorial title belonging to a family some of whose members have been conspicuous in history. The Béarnaise family named Besiade moved into the province of Orléanais in the 17th century, and there acquired the estate of Avaray. In 1667 Theophile de Besiade, marquis d'Avaray, obtained the office of grand bailiff of Orleans, which was held by several of his descendants after him.^[1]

Claude Antoine de Besiade, marquis d'Avaray, was deputy for the bailliage of Orleans in the states-general of 1789, and proposed a Declaration of the Duties of Man as a pendant to the Declaration of the Rights of Man; he subsequently became a lieutenant-general in 1814, a peer of France in 1815, and duc d'Avaray in 1818. Antoine Louis Francois de Besiade, comte d'Avaray, son of the above, distinguished himself during the Revolution by his devotion to the comte de Provence, afterwards Louis XVIII, whose emigration he assisted. Having nominally become king in 1799, that prince created the estate of Ile-Jourdain a duchy, under the title of Avaray, in favour of the comte d'Avaray, whom he termed his "liberator".^[1]

Population

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
1793	709	—
1800	760	+7.2%
1806	748	−1.6%
1821	836	+11.8%
1831	865	+3.5%
1836	922	+6.6%
1841	917	−0.5%
1846	942	+2.7%
1851	965	+2.4%
1856	892	−7.6%
1861	851	−4.6%
1866	903	+6.1%
1872	863	−4.4%
1876	823	−4.6%
1881	813	−1.2%
1886	807	−0.7%
1891	706	−12.5%
1896	659	−6.7%
1901	622	−5.6%
1906	606	−2.6%
1911	579	−4.5%
1921	509	−12.1%
1926	458	−10.0%
1931	480	+4.8%
1936	423	−11.9%
1946	385	−9.0%
1954	394	+2.3%
1962	397	+0.8%
1968	491	+23.7%
1975	466	−5.1%
1982	481	+3.2%
1990	514	+6.9%
1999	577	+12.3%
2006	708	+22.7%
2009	730	+3.1%

Notable buildings

The Château d'Avaray was built in the 16th century; of this building only four corner towers remain. In the 1730s a central building with two curving wings was erected. The park is magnificent and is said to have been designed by Le Nôtre.^[2]

See also

• Communes of the Loir-et-Cher department

Notes

1. Prinet 1911, p. 51.
2. Châteaux of the Loire. (Nagel Travel Guide Series.) Geneva: Nagel; p. 45

References

• INSEE statistics

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Prinet, Léon Jacques Maxime (1911). "Avaray". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 51.