Villaines-la-Juhel
Encyclopedia
Villaines-la-Juhel is a commune
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

 in the Mayenne
Mayenne
Mayenne is a department in northwest France named after the Mayenne River.-History:Mayenne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. The northern two thirds correspond to the western part of the former province of Maine...

 department in north-western France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

Geography

The town of Villaines-la-Juhel was not created by chance. Its position on a strategic Roman way was what enabled it to develop into the city which we know today. Its size confers a position of a town of the third rank on a departmental scale, at the demographic and administrative level. Villaines-la-Juhel is a relatively insulated rural pole and depends on other administrative divisions.

Villaines-la-Juhel counts 3180 inhabitants without double accounts. The commune covers 29 km² and has an average density of 110 inhabitants/km². It is the eleventh commune and the ninth most populated agglomeration department of Mayenne. It is located in the North-eastern part of Mayenne, with 56 kilometres of the Prefecture of the department, i.e. Laval. Its position, with the variation of the main roads, the great agglomerations, and the shoed network makes of Villaines-la-Juhel, a central pole for all this part of the department.

The city is close to the eastern border of Mayenne. Its canton is bordering on the department of Sarthe
Sarthe
Sarthe is a French department, named after the Sarthe River.- History :The department was created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790, pursuant to the law of December 22, 1789, starting from a part of the province of Maine which was divided into two departments, Sarthe to the east and...

, and very near to the border of l'Orne. It is in the center of a triangle made up in the North-East by Pre-in-Pail, in the West by Mayenne and South-east by Sillé-le-Guillaume
Sillé-le-Guillaume
Sillé-le-Guillaume is a commune in the Sarthe department in the region of Pays-de-la-Loire in north-western France, named after Guillaume de Sillé....

 in la Sarthe. Each one of these towns of importance, on the scale of Mayenne, is separated by 16 to 28 kilometres from Villaines-la-Juhel. The commune is far away from the great national highways and motorway but the secondary roads radiate from there throughout the canton. That reinforces the idea that it is a true centre of attraction on its canton.

History

The Roman road Jublains-Lisieux passed near the current agglomeration, which indicates an occupation of the site at that time. With the Middle Ages, the Lord of Mayenne established a castle on a hillock not far from the borough de Saint-Georges, centre of the town. Aiglibert, Bishop of Le Mans, gave to the Monastery of Sainte-Marie half of said of Villaines, Trans
Trans, Mayenne
Trans is a commune in the Mayenne department in north-western France....

, Thorigné
Thorigné
Thorigné is a commune in the Deux-Sèvres department in western France.-References:*...

, July 9, 692. These localities are also confirmed to Saint-Aldric by Louis Débonnaire in 892, but under the name of Vilhena.

In 1140, Mathilde of England gave the ground of Villaines, to Juhel II de Mayenne, in thanks for the services which he had rendered. The seigniory took its name then. A fortress was built at that time, in ruin since the war of the English and of which remains today, bases of the keep
Keep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...

.

Villaines-la-Juhel initially formed a châtellenie, chief town for the franks-fiefs of one of the seigniories of Maine in 1312 and concerning the county of Maine. The family of Champagne occupied the ground of Villaines-la-Juhel until the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

. The fibers of flax and hemp used in manufactures of Alençon
Alençon
Alençon is a commune in Normandy, France, capital of the Orne department. It is situated west of Paris. Alençon belongs to the intercommunality of Alençon .-History:...

 and of Mayenne
Mayenne
Mayenne is a department in northwest France named after the Mayenne River.-History:Mayenne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. The northern two thirds correspond to the western part of the former province of Maine...

 came from Villaines-la-Juhel. The borough also exported eggs, butter, poultries and pigs.

After the 2nd world war, a deputy of Mayenne, Robert Buron
Robert Buron
Robert Buron was a French politician and Minister of Finance from 20 January 1955 to 23 February 1955 and Minister of Public Works, Transport, and Tourism during Charles de Gaulle's third term from 9 June 1958 to 8 January 1959.Buron was born in Paris, where he also died. He was kidnapped during...

, became several times minister, was to advise General and Mayor of Villaines-la-Juhel. It was under his impulse and his relayed by the successive municipalities that the city took a new rise. The presence of large companies testify to this dynamism even though today the commune undergoes some delocalization. The city obtained important industrial companies, thus employing a great number of employees.

However, many suffered from the closing of several great production facilities as the factory Seb-Moulinex which had employed several hundreds of employees. However, other industries (materials of office automation, manufacture of multi-media supports, etc.) have a dynamic activity and employ a significant part of the local working population.

See also

  • Communes of the Mayenne department
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK