Seyne (; Vivaro-Alpine: Sèina) is a commune in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, a department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in south-east France. It is roughly 30 km north of Digne.
The village's official name is listed under the INSEE Official Geographic Code as "Seyne". However it is known locally as "Seyne-les-Alpes", not to be confused with La Seyne-sur-Mer which is the second largest city in the Var.
The residents are traditionally referred to as "Seynois". In more recent years locals have been known to also go by "Seynard" (male) and "Seynarde" (female).
The Alpes-de-Haute-Provence tourism board listed Seyne-les-Alpes as one of their "villages and towns of character", an award given to places around the region with remarkable architecture and less than 2000 inhabitants.
Geography
The village sits at an altitude of . The Seyne Valley, known for its rich soil, is nicknamed the Swiss Provençal.
The only river to run through the village is the , a tributary of the Durance.
The local area is made up of of woodland and forests.
Communication and transport Seyne is situated on the D900 road, between the neighbouring communes of Le Vernet and Selonnet. The road runs from Digne in the south, all the way to the Maddalena Pass on the Italian-French border. The nearest SNCF railway station is the .
Climate
Toponymy The name of the village, as it appeared for the first time in 1147 (in Sedena), is thought to refer to the Gallic tribe of the Adanates, or to be built on the root *Sed-, for rock, according to Charles Rostaing. According to , the name comes from a Pre-Celtic root oronym (mountain toponym), *Sed-. The municipality is named Sanha in the Vivaro-Alpine dialect and Provençal dialect of the , and Sagno in the Mistralian norm.
History
Antiquity Before the Roman conquest, Seyne was the capital of the Adanates. (BnF no. FRBNF35450017h) It held the status of civitas under the Roman Empire.
Middle Ages The first counts appeared in the area with the advent of c.950 of Boson, son of Rothbald. His grand-daughter later married the count of Toulose, the beginning of lengthy ties between the two cities. Seyne appeared in charters in 1146 ('in Sedena')Géraldine Bérard, Carte archéologique, p. 452.
Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona forced the submission of Provençal barons who had revolted in the Baussenque Wars. After taking control of Arles, he summoned the lords of Haute-Provence to Seyne to renew their fealty. The Counts of Provence endowed the consulate as early as 1223Baratier, Duby & Hildesheimer, p. 200 (1220 according to legal historian ), which served as a model to other consulates. Around the 1220s, a large tower was built to defend the city, which was then called Seyne-la-Grande-Tour. A regional council took place in 1267. The Saint-Jacques Hospital was founded in 1293, followed at the end of the 15th century by the Hôtel-Dieu.
The death of Joanna I of Naples opened a succession crisis at the head of the . The towns of the Union of Aix (1382-1387) supported Charles, Duke of Durazzo against Louis I, Duke of Anjou. The community supported the Durazzo side until 18 September 1385, then changed camp and joined the Angevins through the patient negotiations of Marie de Blois, Louis I's widow and regent of their son Louis II. The surrender of Seyne involved the communities of Couloubrous and Beauvillars.Geneviève Xhayet, p. 425.
The fair held in Seyne in the late Middle Ages benefitted from its crossroads location, and continued until the end of the Ancien Regime.Louis Stouff, carte 86: Port, routes et foires du XIIIe au XVe siècles (Map 86: Port, Roads and Fairs From the 13th to the 15th Centuries), in Baratier, Duby & HildesheimerBaratier and Hilsdesheimer, "carte 122: Les foires (1713-1789)" (Map 122: Fairs (1713-1789), in Baratier, Duby & Hildesheimer Seyne was a baillie which subsequently became a seneschal headquarters: It included the communities of Auzet, Barles, La Bréole, Montclar, Pontis, Selonnet, Saint-Martin-lès-Seyne, Saint-Vincent, Ubaye, Verdaches, Le Vernet.de Loye, p. 404-405.
The community of Beauvillars, which had 88 feus at the enumeration of 1316, depended administratively upon Seyne.Baratier, Duby & Hildesheimer, p. 164. In the 15th century, the inhabitants of Beauvillars, who had wanted to secede, were massacred, the survivors were deported, and the name of Beauvillars was erased from the archives.
The community of Couloubrous (Colobrosium, cited in the 13th century), was also attached to 15th century Seyne.Baratier, Duby & Hildesheimer, p. 172. There were 19 feus in 1316, and it also had a .Édouard Baratier, "carte 45: Les consulats de Provence et du Comtat (XIIe-XIIIe siècles)" (Map 45: Constulates of Provence and of the Comtat (12th-13th Centuries), in Baratier, Duby & Hildesheimer, Atlas historique de la Provence….
Early modern (1483-1789) In the middle of the 16th century, Protestantism took root in Seyne. Through the Edict of Amboise (1563), adherents of this religion were allowed to build a place of worship, but outside the municipality.
The town was captured and looted by Protestant captain in the summer of 1560, during the Wars of Religion. The town was again attacked by Protestants in 1574,Jacques Cru, p. 200. who this time held it thereafter. The hid here in 1585, before the offensive of the Catholic League,Jacques Cru, p. 202. without preventing the capture of the city by the Duke of Épernon. During the siege, the bell tower was destroyed.Raymond Collier, p. 89.
At the end of the Wars of Religion, the Duke of Lesdiguières established a camp where he prepared his campaign to take Provence back from the Catholic Leaguers.Yvette Isnard, p. 40.
The Protestant Reformation had despite this fighting some success in Seyne, and some of the town's inhabitants remained Protestant. The Protestant community remained into the 17th century around their church, through the Edict of Nantes (1598). However, the Edict of Fontainebleau abolished the provisions of the edict of Nantes in 1688. It was fatal to the Protestant community, which disappeared, its people either emigrating or converted by force.Édouard Baratier, "Les Protestants en Provence" (Protestants in Provence), maps 118 and 119 with commentary in Baratier, Duby & Hildesheimer
In 1656, the two hospitals (Hôtel-Dieu and hospital Saint-Jacques) merged into a single institution and moved to a shared building in 1734.
In 1690, the Marquis de Parelle led the Piedmontaise army of 5,000 men down from the Ubaye Valley and besieged Seyne. The city was forced to negotiate since the medieval enclosure was insufficient to ensure its defence, and a ransom was set at 11,000 livres. However, the militia of Provence and the succeeded in driving them back. On 24 December, funds were found and new bastions were built by Niquet. The new wall completed in August 1691 left the great tower outside of the city, but reinforced.Guy Silve, p. 82
After a more serious alert in 1692, the entire Alpine border was reconsidered by Sebastien Vauban. In December 1692, he asked for the construction of a citadel including the great tower. led the work from 1693 to 1699. Although not satisfied during his inspection tour in 1700, Vauban failed to modify the fortifications, in part by building redoubts of setbacks in the north. The annexation of Ubaye by the Treaty of Utrecht removed the threat sufficiently for the work to be deferred indefinitely,Guy Silve, p. 82-83 (except for repairs to the walls in 1786).
The city was occupied in this condition by the Austro-Sardes in 1748 during the War of the Austrian Succession and again in 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.Guy Silve, p. 83-84 The city was almost undefended at the end of the Ancien Régime, with nine guns served by a garrison of three invalids, and an arsenal of 93 guns.
The city was the seat of a viguerie until the French Revolution and an office of the at the end of the Ancien Régime.
French Revolution Just before the French Revolution, unrest mounted. Several years of fiscal problems preceded a bad harvest in 1788 and a very cold winter of 1788-89. The election of the Estates-General of 1789 was prepared by elections for in 1788 and in January 1789, which highlighted the political oppositions of class and caused some agitation. At the end of March, as the cahiers de doléances were drawn up, a wave of insurrection shook Provence. A wheat riot occurred in Seyne on 29 March.M. Cubells, p. 310 and 312 PeasantsM. Cubells, p. 313 gathered, protesting with shouts and threatens against the wealthy. However, the riot went no further, and did not cause any changes, unlike others in the region.M. Cubells, p. 316
At first, reaction consisted in gathering the Maréchaussée staff. Then lawsuits were commissioned by the Parlement of Aix-en-Provence, but sentences were not carried out because of the storming of the Bastille and the Great Fear. In appeasement, an amnesty was announced in early August.M. Cubells, p. 322
The fall of the Bastille was welcomed and thought to presage the end of arbitrary use of royal power, and perhaps profound changes. The advent of the new regime triggered a great phenomenon of collective fear that seized France, fear of an aristocrats conspiring to recover their privileges.
Rumours of armed soldiers devastating everything in their path spread rapidly, accompanied by gunfire, violence against nobles, and the organization of militias. The Great Fear came from Tallard, and awareness of the fear of the Mâconnais reached Seyne on the evening of 31 July 1789.Michel Vovelle, "Les troubles de Provence en 1789" (Unrest in Provence in 1789), map 154 and commentary, in Baratier, Duby & Hildesheimer The of Turriers and Bellaffaire, warned by those at Gap that a troop of 5-6,000 brigands was headed to Haute-Provence after plundering the Dauphiné, sent word to the consuls of Seyne, who sent word to Sisteron and Digne, thereby spreading the Great Fear. They also warned all parishes within the purview of the viguerie of Seyne, and sent messengers to Gap and Embrun to ask for news. The arsenal of the citadel was requisitioned, and 93 guns and nine cannons were distributed in Seyne and the villages of Saint-Pons, Selonnet and Chardavon. Men took refuge with their furniture and livestock away from the walls of the citadel.
That night, messengers from Rochebrune and La Motte confirmed the news, and added that Romans-sur-Isère had been sacked. From the south, disquieting news arrived of the occupation of Castellane by 4,000 and the advance of 1,000 Piedmont soldiers in the Durance Valley. On 2 August, the panic declined, as the facts became clearer. However, a significant change took place. All communities Department were to be armed, organized to defend themselves and to defend their neighbours. A sense of solidarity was born within communities and between neighbouring communities, and the consuls usually decided to maintain the National Guard on foot. As soon as the fear had settled, the authorities disarmed workers and landless peasants, and kept only landowners and business owners in the National Guard.
The of the municipality was created in the summer of 1792.
19th century Seyne saw some industrialization in the 19th century with the development of textile industries.
As with many municipalities in this department, Seyne had schools well before the Jules Ferry laws. In 1863, it had five, one in the town proper and also in the villages of Pompiery, Bas-Chardavon, Pons and Couloubroux. These schools provided primary education for boys. In the main town, a school for girls was mandated by the Falloux Laws of 1851.Labadie, p. 16. The commune took advantage of subsidies from the second Duruy Law (1877) to rebuild or renovate its schools. Only the Bas-Chardavon school was not addressed.Labadie, p. 11.
Politics and administration
Trends in policies and results
List of mayors