Bussy-le-Château

Bussy-le-Château

Bussy-le-Château Church
Bussy-le-Château

Coordinates: 49°03′51″N 4°32′32″E / 49.0642°N 4.5422°E / 49.0642; 4.5422Coordinates: 49°03′51″N 4°32′32″E / 49.0642°N 4.5422°E / 49.0642; 4.5422
Country France
Region Grand Est
Department Marne
Arrondissement Châlons-en-Champagne
Canton Suippes
Intercommunality Région de Suippes
Government
 • Mayor (2014–2020) Gilles Gossart
Area1 23.93 km2 (9.24 sq mi)
Population (2010)2 164
 • Density 6.9/km2 (18/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
INSEE/Postal code 51097 / 51600

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.

Bussy-le-Château is a French commune in the Marne department in the Grand Est region of north-eastern France.

The inhabitants of the commune are known as Bussinais or Bussinaises.[1]

Geography

Bussy-le-Château is located some 15 km north-east of Châlons-en-Champagne and 40 km south-east of Reims. Access to the commune is by road D79 from Suippes in the north which passes through the commune and the village and continues south to Courtisols. The D66 road comes from Somme-Tourbe in the north-east passing through the village and continuing west to La Cheppe. The D994 forms the south-western border of the commune as it goes from La Cheppe to Nettancourt. The E50 passes through the south of the commune from west to east but has no exit in the commune. There is also a railway line parallel to the E50 but no station in the commune. The commune consists entirely of farmland.[2]

Neighbouring communes and villages[2]

 Mourmelon-le-Grand Suippes Somme-Suippe
Cuperly Saint-Remy-sur-Bussy
   Bussy-le-Château  
La Cheppe Courtisols Tilloy-et-Bellay

Toponymy

The name Bussy comes from bu (wood) and yd (populated place). It has been known by many names over the course of time:

History

The Deanery of Bussy-le-Château and those of Châlons, Coole, and Vitry-en-Perthois were the four ecclesiastical districts which formed the large Archdeaconry of Chalons.

The deanery of Bussy contained the Parishes of La Cheppe, Coulmier (attached to Mutigny to form La Chaussée-sur-Marne), Coupéville, Courtisols, La Croix-en-Champagne, Dampierre-au-Temple, L'Epine, Le Fresne, Isle-sur-Marne, Juvigny, Marson, Pogny, Recy, Saint-Étienne-au-Temple, Saint-Remy-sur-Bussy, Sarry, Somme-Vesle, Tilloy-et-Bellay, Vésigneul-sur-Marne, and La Veuve.[3]

In the 12th century Bussy-le-Château was in the County of Champagne, one of the 26 castellanies-prévôtés held in fief from the Emperor, the King of France, the Duke of Burgundy, the Abbey of Saint-Denis, the Archbishops of Reims and Sens, and the bishops of Châlons and Langres.

In the 16th and 17th centuries the lordship of Bussy-le-Château as well as the lordships of Reynel, Choiseul, Lafauche, Vavray-le-Grand, Blaise, Vignory, and Sexfontaines were part of the prerogative of the House of Amboise.

The Lordship of Bussy-le-Château was elevated to the rank of a Marquisate by letter in the month of January 1699.[4] It was then under the control of the Arnolet de la Rochefontaine family. The title was confirmed in 1703.

In 1770, Bussy-le-Château was held by the Cappy family.[5]

Bussy-le-Château takes its name from an ancient fort which appears to have been of considerable size.

During the French Revolution, following the decree of the National Convention of 16 October 1793 (25 vendémiaire Year II), which invited communes with names that recalled the memories of the monarchy, feudalism, or superstition, to replace them with other names, the commune changed its name to Bussy-les-Mottes due to five large mounds in the middle of the village which were arranged in a row along the river.[6]

There was a war hospital outside the village during the First World War between the roads leading to Saint-Remy-sur-Bussy and Courtisols. There was also a railway for transport of troops.

Administration

List of Successive Mayors[7]

From To Name Party Position
1835 1839 Jacquet-Létaudin
1890 Augustin Prosper Bablot
1891 1899 Louis Félix Oudard
1906 Cyrille Sophrone Laloua
1907 1912 Ernest René Gautier
Collard
Georges Notret
1965 Albert Musset
1965 1987 Daniel Godard
1987 2003 Hubert Laloua
2003 2014 Jean-Marie Godart
2014 2020 Gilles Gossart

(Not all data is known)

Demography

In 2010 the commune had 164 inhabitants. The evolution of the number of inhabitants is known from the population censuses conducted in the commune since 1793. From the 21st century, a census of communes with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants is held every five years, unlike larger communes that have a sample survey every year.[Note 1]

Population Change (See database)
1793 1800 1806 1821 1831 1836 1841 1846 1851
376 386 370 400 402 400 423 423 418
1856 1861 1866 1872 1876 1881 1886 1891 1896
391 354 354 343 333 323 298 288 298
1901 1906 1911 1921 1926 1931 1936 1946 1954
287 264 262 233 273 241 243 200 209
1962 1968 1975 1982 1990 1999 2006 2010 -
227 266 223 216 195 178 169 164 -

Sources : Ldh/EHESS/Cassini until 1962, INSEE database from 1968 (population without double counting and municipal population from 2006)

Economy

Most of the inhabitants of the village derive their income from intensive agriculture (wheat, barley, canola, peas, alfalfa, beets, potatoes, carrots, and, in the past, tobacco, corn, sunflower, lentils...). There are also some cattle. A local vegetable called the Boulette de Bussy (Bussy dumpling),[8] is a variety of turnip known for its finesse and cooked notably at the starred restaurant "Les Crayères" in Reims.

It is possible to stay in Bussy-le-Château in a guesthouse.

There are no shops.

Local culture and heritage

Cultural events and festivals

The Village Festival takes place the weekend after Saint-Luc on 18 October. There are traditionally some fairground rides and the Suippes band interprets a variety of works from classical to contemporary.

A cyclo-cross race "bike and run" has taken place every year since 2009 in May organized by La Pédale Suippase. It has been increasingly successful over time. Its course passes through the village along some tumuli and crosses the river: it may be performed in its entirety almost all year round.

Sites and Monuments

The commune has five Tumuli on its territory including three which are relatively intact in a line along the river. Two of the Tumuli are registered as historical monuments.[9][10]

Their names are:[11]

To the east of the tumuli are the remains of an ancient castle.

The Oratory of Saint-Nicolas

The oldest oratory identified in the Marne is in Bussy-le-Chateau on the western outskirts of the village. Dedicated to Saint Nicolas, an inscription reads: "to the glory of God restored through the efforts of Jacquet-Létaudin Mayor of Bussy and Bablot-Jacquet his son in 1835".

There was a military cemetery after the First World War with of hundreds of soldiers' graves in the street now called now "Rue du Rouillon". The graves were transferred to Sommepy-Tahure in the 1950s.

The 294th Infantry Regiment made a passage through Bussy-le-Château.

The commune has no shops although in the past there were a butcher shop, a bakery, and several cafes. The elementary school, which was located in the Town Hall, has been closed since 2005: children go to school in the communal group school in Saint-Remy-sur-Bussy. The football field is now a cultivated field. There were Masses once a week in the church in the 19th century but there have been none since the death of the last parish priest, Father Jean Colmart.

Aerial View of Bussy-le-Château

Notable people linked to the commune

The Bussy-d'Amboise family branch died out on 12 May 1626.

The 8 members of the crew of a Stirling III of No. 622 Squadron RAF (code GI-Q), a bomber of the Commonwealth forces, were shot down over the commune on 18 November 1943 while flying to Mannheim (Germany) for a bombing mission. Their bodies have been buried in the cemetery on the north side of the church since 20 November 1943.[18][19]

Bussy-le-Château The Airmen's Graves

The 8 crew members were:

See also

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ↑ At the beginning of the 21st century, the methods of identification have been modified by Law No. 2002-276 of 27 February 2002, the so-called "law of local democracy" and in particular Title V "census operations" allows, after a transitional period running from 2004 to 2008, the annual publication of the legal population of the different French administrative districts. For communes with a population greater than 10,000 inhabitants, a sample survey is conducted annually, the entire territory of these communes is taken into account at the end of the period of five years. The first "legal population" after 1999 under this new law came into force on 1 January 2009 and was based on the census of 2006.

References

  1. ↑ Inhabitants of Marne (French)
  2. 1 2 Google Maps
  3. ↑ Chossenot (S.), Population and Occupation of land in the Deanery of Bussy-le-Château du Ve in the 15th century, Memoir of dominion under the direction of C. Vulliez et J. Lusse, University of Reims, UFR des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, 1998, 2 vol. (French)
  4. ↑ François-Alexandre Aubert de la Chesnaye des Bois, Genealogical Dictionary, heraldry, chronological and historical, containing the origin and current status of the first houses of France, sovereign and major houses of Europe; the names of provinces, cities, lands, ... erected principalities, duchies, marquisates, counties, and viscounties, baronneries; extinct houses that have possessed, those by inheritance, purchase or donation or alliance of sovereign possess today, the noble families of the kingdom and the names and genealogies weapons have not been published by Messrs. D.L.C.D.B., Paris, Duchesne, 1757 (French)
  5. ↑ Henri Gourdon Genouillace (1826-1898), Dictionary of fiefs, manors, castellanies, etc. of ancient France, containing the names of the land and those families who have owned their provincial status, dates of possession, transmission or erection on titled lands, etc., etc., Paris, E.Dentu editor, 1862 (French)
  6. ↑ Mr Calmette, History of remarkable Cities, Towns and Villages in Marne, 1850 (reprinted in 1989 by La Tour Gile)
  7. ↑ List of Mayors of France (French)
  8. ↑ Boulette de Bussy website (French)
  9. ↑ Ministry of Culture, Mérimée PA00078603 Tumulus (French)
  10. ↑ Ministry of Culture, Mérimée PA00078602 Tumulus (French)
  11. ↑ Pierre-Hilaire Létaudin Historical study of La Cheppe, Attila's Camp and its surroundings, Châlons-sur-Marne, 1869 (French)
  12. ↑ A. Guillemot, Tales, legends, old customs of Marne: The Massacre of bottles on the "tower" of Bussy-Le-Château (French)
  13. 1 2 Catalogue of gentlemen of Champagne. Bailiwick of Chalons-sur-Marne. Minutes of the Special Assembly of the Nobility, 13 March 1789 (French)
  14. ↑ François-Alexandre Aubert de La Chesnaye des Bois, Dictionary of the nobility, containing genealogies, history ...', Volume 3 (French)
  15. ↑ Louis Pierre d'Hozier, General Armorial of France (French)
  16. ↑ Catalogue of gentlemen of Champagne. List of gentlemen who participated in person or by proxy at the Meeting of the Nobility in drafting the list of grievances in the Bailiwick of Vitry and side bailiwicks of St. Menehould Fismes, Saint-Dizier and Epernay. Seneuze, imp. of the King at Chalons, 1789. 6 March 1789 (French)
  17. ↑ Biographie Châlonnaise, collective work (French)
  18. ↑ Inscriptions engraved on the 8 tombstones and their graves.
  19. ↑ An article by Hervé Chabaud published in L'Union on 18 November 2003, page 8 and on his blog (French)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bussy-le-Château.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/6/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.