Banogne-Recouvrance

Banogne-Recouvrance
The Village Centre
Coat of arms
Banogne-Recouvrance
Location within Grand Est region  Banogne-Recouvrance
Coordinates: 49°34′23″N 4°07′42″E / 49.5731°N 4.1283°ECoordinates: 49°34′23″N 4°07′42″E / 49.5731°N 4.1283°E
Country	France
Region	Grand Est
Department	Ardennes
Arrondissement	Rethel
Canton	Château-Porcien
Intercommunality	Pays rethélois
Government
• Mayor (2014–2020)	Jean-Luc Guillaume
Area^1	19.01 km^2 (7.34 sq mi)
Population (2010)^2	160
• Density	8.4/km^2 (22/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
INSEE/Postal code	08046 / 08220
Elevation	80–162 m (262–531 ft) (avg. 136 m or 446 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.

Banogne-Recouvrance is a French commune in the Ardennes department in the Grand Est region of northern France.

The inhabitants of the commune are known as Banognais or Banognaises.^[1]

Geography

The Hamlet of Recouvrance

Banogne-Recouvrance is located some 20 km north-west of Rethel and 33 km east of Laon. Access to the commune is by the D30 road from Saint-Quentin-le-Petit in the north-west which passes through the centre of the commune and the village and continues south-east to Condé-lès-Herpy. The D35 goes from the village to Le Thour in the south-west. The D135 goes north from the village to join the D2 north of the commune. Apart from the village at the centre of the commune there is the hamlet of Recouvrance to the east. The commune is entirely farmland.^[2]

The writer Ernst Jünger remembered his passing through the village as a small village off the main roads, nestled in graceful chalk hills.^[3]

Neighbouring communes and villages^[2]

History

The village is mentioned in cartularies of the 13th century.

In 1570 Banogne is described in the census as attached to the Parish of Thour whose barons and the Hotel Dieu de Reims share the land. A strong ditch surrounded Recouvrance providing a refuge for the inhabitants. A place called Ruisselois was the property of the Abbey of Signy then of the Jesuit college in Reims. A white chalk quarry is operated nearby.

In 1822 these villages were united into one commune with Banogne at the centre (with Le Ruisselois as a hamlet). Recouvrance also became a hamlet.

In 1918 the village was the site of fierce fighting during the Battle of St. Quentin Canal in the last weeks of the war. On 25 October the French army captured the heights of the commune and so seized the last stretch between Saint-Quentin and the Aisne valley of the system of German fortifications from La Fère to Rethel called the Hunding Stellung. Of the 125 houses in the town only 10 remained standing at the end of the fighting. The village and the church were rebuilt in the following decade.

Heraldry

Blazon: Party per pale Gules and Azure debruised by 3 blades of wheat of Or, in chief the same charged with 3 martlets of Sable.

Administration

The Town Hall

List of Successive Mayors^[4]

From	To	Name	Party	Position
2001	2008	Sébastien Loriette
2008	2014	Alain Deparpe
2014	2020	Jean-Luc Guillaume

(Not all data is known)

Demography

In 2010 the commune had 160 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
324	368	336	368	690	681	694	715	704

1856	1861	1866	1872	1876	1881	1886	1891	1896
-	-	650	613	562	559	563	572	528

1901	1906	1911	1921	1926	1931	1936	1946	1954
536	502	477	273	381	338	353	260	308

1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2006	2010	-
265	216	194	166	128	139	157	160	-

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

An Oratory at Recouvrance

Sites and monuments

The Church

• A Church rebuilt after the First World War.

Notable people linked to the commune

• Ernst Jünger, German writer, he stayed in the hamlet of Recouvrance when he was a young soldier. This hamlet was slightly behind the front (on the German side) in early 1915 and served as a training area. Ernst Jünger devoted several pages to his stay, which preceded his engagement at the front, in his journal Storm of Steel.^[3][5]

See also

• Communes of the Ardennes department

External links

• Banogne-Recouvrance on the old National Geographic Institute website (French)
• Banogne-Recouvrance on Lion1906
• Banogne-Recouvrance on Google Maps
• Banogne-Recouvrance on Géoportail, National Geographic Institute (IGN) website (French)
• Bannogne and Recouvrance on the 1750 Cassini Map
• Banogne-Recouvrance on the INSEE website (French)
• INSEE (French)

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 Ardennes (French)
2. Google Maps
3. Journals of War, Ernst Jünger. Vol. I, 1914-1918. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade. Gallimard. pp.13-15 (French)
4. List of Mayors of France (French)
5. Banogne-Recouvrance, The test of the Great War and the story of Ernst Jünger (French)