Auriac, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

Auriac (French pronunciation: [oʁjak] ^ⓘ) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of south-western France.

Auriac
Commune
Bearnais house in Auriac
Location of Auriac
Auriac Auriac
Coordinates: 43°27′23″N 0°18′53″W
Country	France
Region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department	Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Arrondissement	Pau
Canton	Terres des Luys et Coteaux du Vic-Bilh
Intercommunality	CC Luys Béarn
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Jean-Claude Vignes
Area 1	5.23 km2 (2.02 sq mi)
Population  (2021)	221
• Density	42/km2 (110/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	64078 /64450
Elevation	145–250 m (476–820 ft) (avg. 242 m or 794 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Geography

Auriac is located some 20 km north of Pau just east of Argelos. Access to the commune is by road D834 from Sarron in the north which passes through the commune and continues to Pau in the south. Access to the village is by road D944 from the village to Thèze in the north-west and the D227 from the village to Sévignacq in the south-east. The A55 autoroute passes through the north of the commune with Exit 9 just north-east of the commune giving access to road D834. The commune is mixed forest and farmland.

Places and hamlets

• Alpin
• Baix
• Bernède
• Blanc
• Calot
• Camot
• Cassagne
• Cazaudehore
• Chin
• Cournau
• Duclos
• Fam
• Hourticq
• Laborde
• Madaune
• Maribat
• Moulin de Mugain
• Mounpézat
• Pénouilh
• Périco
• Pierroulou
• Porte
• Poudgé
• Rey
• Ser (forest)

Toponymy

Entry to Auriac

Exit from Auriac

The commune name in béarnais is Auriac. Michel Grosclaude said that the name probably comes from the Latin man's name Aurius with the Gallo-Roman suffix -acum giving "Domain of Aurius".

The following table shows the origin of the commune name:

Name	Spelling	Date	Source	Page	Origin	Description
Auriac	Auriag	1096	Raymond	17	Marka	Village
	Auriac	1750	Cassini

Sources:

• Raymond: Topographic Dictionary of the Department of Basses-Pyrenees, 1863, on the page numbers indicated in the table. (in French)
• Grosclaude: Toponymic Dictionary of communes, Béarn, 2006 (in French)
• Cassini: Cassini Map from 1750

Origins:

• Marca: Pierre de Marca, History of Béarn.

History

Paul Raymond noted that Auriac was once an annex of Argelos.

Administration

List of Successive Mayors

Mayors from 1824 to 1940

From	To	Name
1824	1829	Augustin Baix
1829	1831	Jean Bertrand
1831	1836	Augustin Baix
1836	1837	Pierre Madaune
1837	1864	Pierre Julien Viguerie
1864	1899	Justin Madaune
1899	1908	Jean Philippe Madaune
1908	1911	Maurice Rey
1911	1919	André Madaune
1919	1929	Jean Soubré
1929	1939	André Madaune
1939	1940	Jean Touret

Old Town Hall

The current Town Hall

Mayors from 1940

From	To	Name
1940	1942	Jean Evrard
1942	1944	Pierre Boué-Cam
1944	1945	Joseph Soubré
1945	1948	René Rey
1948	1949	Pierre Clauzet
1949	1951	Jean Maribat
1951	1951	Joseph Soubré
1951	1953	Pierre Boué-Cam
1953	1959	René Rey
1959	1962	Pierre Clauzet
1962	1963	René Rey
1965	1971	Claude Larrieu
1971	1977	Henri Hélip
1977	1993	Marc Rey
1993	2020	Christian Larrouturou
2020	2026	Jean-Claude Vignes

Inter-communality

The commune is part of five inter-communal structures:

• the Communauté de communes des Luys en Béarn;
• the SIVU for collective sanitation Auriac-Miossens-Lanusse-Thèze
• the Energy association of Pyrénées-Atlantiques;
• the inter-communal association for the management of drinking water from the Luy-Gabas-Lées;
• the inter-communal association of Garlède-Lalonquette;

Demography

The inhabitants of the commune are known as Auriacois or Auriacoises in French.

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1831 317 —     1836 351 +2.06% 1841 330 −1.23% 1846 352 +1.30% 1851 340 −0.69% 1856 339 −0.06% 1861 293 −2.87% 1866 283 −0.69% 1872 287 +0.23% 1876 284 −0.26% 1881 277 −0.50% 1886 257 −1.49% 1891 223 −2.80% 1896 226 +0.27% 1901 227 +0.09% 1906 231 +0.35%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1911 219 −1.06% 1921 189 −1.46% 1926 176 −1.42% 1931 179 +0.34% 1936 184 +0.55% 1946 182 −0.11% 1954 179 −0.21% 1962 163 −1.16% 1968 153 −1.05% 1975 167 +1.26% 1982 166 −0.09% 1990 180 +1.02% 1999 209 +1.67% 2007 247 +2.11% 2012 244 −0.24% 2017 238 −0.50%
Source: EHESS and INSEE

Culture and heritage

An Auriac Farmhouse

Civil heritage

The commune has a number of buildings and structures that are registered as historical monuments:

• A House at Porte (16th century)
• A House at Cazaudehore (19th century)
• Houses and Farms (16th and 19th centuries)

Religious heritage

The Church of Saint-François-de-Sales

The commune has two religious buildings that are registered as historical monuments:

• The Parish Church of Saint-François-de-Sales (18th century) (destroyed)
• The Parish Church of Saint-François-de-Sales (1885). This church was built in 1885 to replace the old church of the same name which appeared on the Cassini Map. The Church contains many items that are registered as historical objects:
  • The furniture of the church
  • A Chasuble (18th century)
  • A Sun-ray Monstrance (19th century)
  • 2 Altar Candlesticks (19th century)
  • A Chalice (19th century)
  • A Prie-dieu (19th century)
  • A Stoup (19th century)
  • 2 Altars, 4 altar seatings, and 2 Tabernacles (1885)
  • An Altar, 2 altar seatings, a Tabernacle, and 2 Statues (1885)
  • 3 Stained glass windows of people: Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Michael protecting a canon, and Saint John (1887)

Facilities

Auriac has a primary school which also serves the communes of Garlède-Mondebat, Lalonquette et Miossens-Lanusse in an Educational Inter-communal Grouping.

See also

• Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department

External links

• Community of communes of Luys en Béarn website (in French)
• Auriac on Géoportail, National Geographic Institute (IGN) website (in French)
• Auriac on the 1750 Cassini Map