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The Roman ways: 2000 years in our service
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Roman ways in the service of the army |
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The Park is surrounded by a natural border formed
by the raised remains of the Roman roads. Traced
by the military authorities to control Gaul that had been
conquered and for the invasion of Britain and Germany.
They were raised so that the Legions could always advance
even if there were floods , constructed as straight as
possible and bound with concrete that made them almost
indestructible (C1st A.D).
These routes, after the pacification became the arteries
for settlement large numbers of people were attracted
by the wealth transported along them (C2nd -C4th A.D.
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Roman ways recreated the world |
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After
the large invasions (C5th ) and the reconstitution
of the empire by Charlemagne (C9th ),important abbeys
established along the roads, Montiéramey (C9th),
Larivour (C11th), Beaulieu (C12th), the
monks cleared the surrounding territory and created
a new local economy. These ways augmented by new roads
saw the region raised economically thanks to the fairs
of champagne (C12th -C14th ) which made the region
the world economic capital, the New-York of the Middle
ages.
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| A
new role |
After
the disappearance of the principalities and during the
centralization of the monarchy (C16th -C17th ),
the Roman ways lost out to the new trade routes radiating
between Paris, the political capital (that is to
say Versailles) and Lyons, the economic capital.
The creation of a network of royal roads under Louis
XV (our present national roads) was a final blow for
the Roman ways, either the new roads ran alongside
the old (ex. D 960 Troyes - Piney - Brienne) or they were
built on top of them (RN 19 from Troyes to Vendeuvre).
The very important Agrippan Way that crossed
the east and the north of the Park, was abandoned. |
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However,
the surviving roads had a modest local use. The peasantry
was at its economic height at the end of the reign of
Louis XV, They were endowed with horses, oxen
and heavy wagons, and used the ancient indestructible
ways to cross the fields. The American army that settled
in Brienne - Le - Château on the NATO air base
after World War II, gave up trying to erase the Agrippan
Way that ran along side the site because it took them
three days to pierce it with the help of bulldozers.
Threatened by successive land consolidations in the
last thirty years, the Roman ways of the territory of
the Park have been listed, August 5, 1982,due
to the initiative of the regional natural Park in the
Supplementary Historic Monument inventory
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| Sylvain
Michon PNRFO © PNRFO |
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