Avaray

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

Avaray
Commune
Coat of arms
Location of Avaray
Avaray
Avaray
Coordinates: 47°43′24″N 1°33′55″E
CountryFrance
RegionCentre-Val de Loire
DepartmentLoir-et-Cher
ArrondissementBlois
CantonLa Beauce
IntercommunalityCC Beauce Val Loire
Government
 • Mayor (2014-2020) Jean-François Mézille
Area
1
13.88 km2 (5.36 sq mi)
Population
 (2017-01-01)[1]
737
 • Density53/km2 (140/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code
41008 /41500
Elevation75–118 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.

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.[2]

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".[2]

Population
Historical population
YearPop.±%
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%
2014 731+0.1%

Sights

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.[3]

See also

References
  1. "Populations légales 2017". INSEE. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  2. Prinet 1911, p. 51.
  3. Châteaux of the Loire. (Nagel Travel Guide Series.) Geneva: Nagel; p. 45
Attribution
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Prinet, Léon Jacques Maxime (1911). "Avaray". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 51.


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