Sentiers du Patrimoine ®

Fontenay-Saint-Père

La Corvée

Informations directionnelles

Continuer dans la rue de la Mairie pour retrouver le point de départ, environ 400 m plus loin.

Prochain point :

Parking


Prochain point : lat="49.022569" lon="1.76037"

La Corvée
A place of tithes and compulsory labour

 

 

From the taxes destined for the clergy...


During the Ancien Regime, this was the site of a large farm where tithes were paid. A tithe is the payment in kind of a tax mainly applied to farm produce. It was in this farm, known as the 'tithe barn', that the harvests intended for the clergy were stored. A mediaeval 'tithe stone' was used at the time to measure the amounts of grain. Tithes were done away with during the Revolution.
A drinking trough was built here and was used for the farm animals at the tithe barn until the early thirteenth century. Today, it is one of the curiosities of the village. It can be found at the top of a few steps, up against a wall of Vexin stone. Its rounded edges and detached centre stone are worthy of note.

 

 

... to the inevitable road building


This place is called 'Corvée', which generally refers to the compulsory free labour that was due to the lord or king under the Ancien Regime. It was ordered built on 26 March 1705, but did not actually take shape until after 1730. Every able-bodied man from the cities, towns and villages within 9,600 toises (a former French unit of measure equal to 1,494m) on either side of the roads to be built had to work there free for six days every month, except during the busiest times of the year in the fields.

 

 

 

 



by Expression Nomade