Vilhonneur

Vilhonneur
Vilhonneur
Location within Poitou-Charentes region Vilhonneur
Coordinates:
Country	France
Region	Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes
Department	Charente
Arrondissement	Angoulême
Canton	La Rochefoucauld
Intercommunality	Val de Tardoire
Government
• Mayor (2008–2014)	Vivian Varneau
Area1	9.36 km2 (3.61 sq mi)
Population (2008)2	335
• Density	36/km2 (93/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	16406 / 16220
Elevation	87–137 m (285–449 ft) (avg. 90 m or 300 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.

Vilhonneur is a commune in the Charente department in southwestern France.

History

Vilhonneur was located on the Angoulême-Limoges Roman road, which was also known as the "English Road" (chemin des Anglais) .

The Rochebertier tower is mentioned in a confession to Philip the Bold in 1276. A medieval castle, of which exist only traces of the foundations, is located on a hillock. The present castle was built by the Chambes (aka Jambes) family in the late sixteenth century.

Population

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
1793	340	—
1800	365	+7.4%
1806	383	+4.9%
1821	436	+13.8%
1831	407	−6.7%
1841	382	−6.1%
1846	426	+11.5%
1851	431	+1.2%
1856	443	+2.8%
1861	430	−2.9%
1866	461	+7.2%
1872	432	−6.3%
1876	438	+1.4%
1881	450	+2.7%
1886	496	+10.2%
1891	488	−1.6%
1896	495	+1.4%
1901	420	−15.2%
1906	422	+0.5%
1911	434	+2.8%
1921	363	−16.4%
1926	364	+0.3%
1931	346	−4.9%
1936	339	−2.0%
1946	312	−8.0%
1954	293	−6.1%
1962	294	+0.3%
1968	286	−2.7%
1975	286	+0.0%
1982	319	+11.5%
1990	318	−0.3%
1999	276	−13.2%
2008	335	+21.4%

Sights

The town has two prehistoric caves of an exceptional nature.

The Placard cave, at Rochebertier, was discovered in 1853 and has been dated to the Magdalenian and Solutrean periods. New paintings were discovered in 1990, identical to those in the Pech Merle cave at Lot.

The "Face" cave (grotte du Visage) was discovered in November 2005 during a caving expedition. It contains engravings as well as human and animal bones dating from the Upper Paleolithic period (around 25 000 years BCE).

At the site of the old Roman ford there is still the 50 cm-wide stone bridge, which was characteristic of the Tardoire and Bandiat valleys.

See also

• Communes of the Charente department

References

• INSEE