Bouillon

For other uses, see Bouillon (disambiguation).
Bouillon
Municipality

Bouillon

Flag

Coat of arms
Bouillon

Location in Belgium

Coordinates: 49°47.73′N 05°4.08′E / 49.79550°N 5.06800°E / 49.79550; 5.06800Coordinates: 49°47.73′N 05°4.08′E / 49.79550°N 5.06800°E / 49.79550; 5.06800
Country Belgium
Community French Community
Region Wallonia
Province Luxembourg
Arrondissement Neufchâteau
Government
  Mayor André Defat (CAP)
  Governing party/ies CAP, PR
Area
  Total 149.09 km2 (57.56 sq mi)
Population (1 January 2013)[1]
  Total 5,427
  Density 36/km2 (94/sq mi)
Postal codes 6830, 6831, 6832, 6833, 6834, 6836, 6838
Area codes 061
Website www.bouillon.be

Bouillon [French pronunciation: [bu.jɔ̃]] (Walloon: Bouyon) a is a municipality in Belgium. It lies in the country's Walloon Region and Luxembourg Province. The municipality, which covers 149.09 km², had 5,477 inhabitants, giving a population density of 36.7 inhabitants per km².

Bouillon has a few schools, a lycée (middle school) and a gymnasium (high school), banks and a town square. Bouillon Castle still sits above the town centre, and is a popular tourist attraction.

History

In the Middle Ages Bouillon was a lordship within the Duchy of Lower Lorraine and the principal seat of the Ardennes-Bouillon dynasty in the 10th and 11th century. In the 11th century they dominated the area, and held the ducal title along with many other titles in the region. Bouillon was the location of the ducal mint and the dominant urban concentration in the dukes' possession.[2]

The Semois river and the Bouillon Castle (13th/19th centuries)

There is a common misconception that Bouillon was a County. While the lords of Bouillon often were counts and dukes, Bouillon itself was not a county. The fortification of Bouillon Castle was, along with the County of Verdun, the core of the possessions of the Ardennes-Bouillon dynasty, and their combined territory was a complex mixture of fiefs, allodial land and other hereditary rights throughout the area. An example of the latter is the Advocacy of the monastery of Saint-Hubert en Ardennes, which was granted to Godfrey II by the prince-bishop of Liège.[3]

The most famous of the Lords of Bouillon was Godfrey of Bouillon, a leader of the First Crusade and the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He sold Bouillon Castle to the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. The prince-bishops started to call themselves dukes of Bouillon, and the town emerged as the capital of a sovereign duchy by 1678, when it was captured from the prince-bishopric by the French army and given to the La Tour d'Auvergne family. The duchy was prized for its strategic location as "the key to the Ardennes" (as Vauban called it) and hence to France itself. It remained a quasi-independent protectorate, like Orange and Monaco, until 1795, when the Republican Army annexed it to France.

After the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, the city was given to the Netherlands in the 1815 Treaty of Paris. It has been part of Belgium since the Revolution of 1830.

Chronology

Geography

A view over Bouillon

The town sits in a sharp bend of the river Semois (German: Sesbach, Walloon: Simwès, in France : Semoy) whose total length is 210 km. The surrounding area is largely forested.

The municipality consists of the following sub-municipalities: Bouillon proper, Bellevaux, Corbion, Dohan, Les Hayons, Noirefontaine, Poupehan, Rochehaut, Sensenruth, Ucimont, and Vivy.

Villages

population centers include:

  • Botassart
  • Curfoz
  • Frahan
  • Mogimont
  • Ban d'Alle
  • Bas Dohan
  • Beauchenai
  • Bèrôpré
  • Bodimont
  • Boulet
  • Briahan
  • Château-le-Duc
  • Claimont
  • Closures
  • Combra
  • Dessus le Moulin
  • Germauchamps
  • Grand Hez
  • Gros Hêtre
  • L'Espérance
  • La Boûle
  • La Cornette
  • La Charité
  • La Gemelle
  • La Heurette
  • La Justice
  • La Patte d'Oie
  • La Pichelotte
  • La Ramonette
  • Lauwé
  • Laviot
  • Le Ban
  • Le Bondon
  • Le Couroi
  • Le Soyisse
  • Le Stayi
  • Les Blancs Cailloux
  • Les Champs Bouloi
  • Les Côtes
  • Les Crêtes de Frahan
  • Les Différends
  • Les Enclaves
  • Les Longs Champs
  • Les Quatre Chemins
  • Les Sentinés
  • Les Trois Fontaines
  • Loveté
  • Menuchenet
  • Merleux Han
  • Mohan
  • Moulin du Bochet
  • Pré Hoc
  • Remifontaine
  • Rond le Duc
  • Rond Napoléon
  • Scotifontaine
  • Tirifontaine
  • Vardon

Historical population

Year Population Area Density
2002 5,393 (2,649 males and 2,744 females) 148.94 km² 36.21/km²

Notable people

See also

Notes

  1. Population per municipality on 1 January 2013 (XLS; 607.5 KB)
  2. 1 2 Murray, p. 10.
  3. Murray, p. 11.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bouillon.
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Bouillon.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 07, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.