Medieval Origins Although in
Gallo-Roman times, a
Roman road ran to the south of
Aigrefeuille, no evidence of human occupation of this time was noted there. It was not until the period of the
High Middle Ages that the first traces can be found. This Roman road was called "Le Grand Chemin" (The Great Way) and is well documented in the
Table of Peutinger and archaeological excavations connected
Angériacum to the current ''
Saint-Jean d'Angely, which is the presumed site of the Port du Plomb'' at
L'Houmeau via
Muron and
Le Thou. Thus, the earliest known traces of ''Aigrefeuille d'Aunis
are from the early medieval period, i.e. the 12th century: almost the same time as that of La Rochelle, following the fall of Châtelaillon in 1130. Aigrefeuille d'Aunis'' is a medieval creation, following the period of the great forest clearing of the
Middle Ages. The region of
Aunis, being heavily wooded, was cleared very late, from only the 11th to the 12th centuries and this was a measure of the population increase and the prosperity of the vineyards. A witness to this evolution was the Saint-Étienne church, which was built in the middle of the 12th century in the heart of the original village but rebuilt several times in the Middle Ages, particularly in 1360 and especially the 15th century, when it was restored and strengthened after the
Hundred Years' War. In the Middle Ages, ''Aigrefeuille d'Aunis
was at the centre of a large clearing in the forest. The ancient Forest of Argenson
, which separated the old provinces of Aunis
and Poitou
, was gradually reduced and extensive clearings were carried out mainly for vineyards which, at Aigrefeuille
, were at the southern limit of the plain of Aunis''. At the turn of the 13th century,
Aigrefeuille became a
lordship that had already acquired a certain importance in
Aunis, and the lord, Guillaume Maingot, was sire of
Surgères. He was also the first known lord of
Aigrefeuille.
Aigrefeuille was then a "considerable parish of
Aunis and one of the oldest
Châtelains of the barony of Surgères with the right of "chasteau" and a fortress with high, medium, and low jurisdiction, honorific rights and the first bench in the church". This growth came from the mutation of the vineyards of
Aunis, which had operated since the 16th century, to the production of brandy: "The slump of
Aunis wine caused by strong competition from
Bordeaux wine gave rise to the first distillations, learned from the Dutch. The Netherlands and the Baltic countries were the first lasting buyers of "vin brûlé" ("
Mulled wine" or
Brandewijn in Dutch) from
Aunis. If vineyard production was important, it grew most often at the expense of other products: "The land around maritime activities stimulate production, supported by capital from a well-off society (from the bourgeoisie of
La Rochelle) that marks the landscape footprint of these speculative activities. These speculative activities develop around the vine which, at the pace of growth of the trade in spirits, born during the 16th century, settled on all suitable land to accommodate it, sometimes to the detriment of other food-producing areas". At the dawn of the
French Revolution,
Aigrefeuille was a large rural parish, with more than a thousand inhabitants. In 1793, its population was 1,290 inhabitants. However, it was not accepted by the Constituent Assembly in 1790 to be designated as the capital of the Canton, which was
Ciré until 1801.
The 19th century, the century of great changes Aigrefeuille, capital of canton The town of
Aigrefeuille became the capital of the canton at the beginning of the 19th century, following the redistribution of the administrative map of the region in 1800. This administrative function was withdrawn from
Ciré and from
Benon. These two cantons were united in 1801 into one canton with the boundaries redefined. The geographical criterion was little influence on the choice of
Aigrefeuille as capital, since the town is not the centre of the canton. It was both because of its demographic weight and diversity of economic activities that the town was designated to be the new capital of a district then comprising fourteen communes. This new role put the tribunal of the justice of peace in the town, and the former constabulary building became a Police Station again as in the Napoleonic era. At the end of the
First Empire, the wealth of
Aigrefeuille was based primarily on agriculture. The expansion of the vineyards was so great that it became a true monoculture until the crisis of
phylloxera, which reached the vineyards of Aunis in 1876. The wine brought great prosperity to the commune and the countryside of
Aunis. If the town became a major centre of wine production in the first half of the 19th century, it was also a centre of small rural industries, with four windmills, two textile factories, a lime kiln, and the important mining of a
peat bog which employed a large number of labourers. Peat Bogs in the commune were used particularly to supply several cognac distilleries in
Aigrefeuille as wood, which was usually used in the "roasters", had become a rare commodity in
Aunis. Three rail lines traversed
Aunis through
Aigrefeuille: "Under the metal canopy
Aigrefeuille station reigned a great deal of activity because it is the junction of the La Rochelle and Rochefort lines to Paris and the La Rochelle – Rochefort line; Nearby, a small locomotive depot meets the motive power needs". This function of a junction and railway depot was completed by the installation of a gas plant and a gasometer followed by a water tower. The station at
Aigrefeuille was particularly busy and important. It had three waiting rooms, a buffet, and even a library. It quickly became a new place of entertainment for the commune. but the commune recorded in the next census a notable decline in population. Nevertheless,
Aigrefeuille was still the first commune in its canton and was one of the largest rural communes of
Aunis at the beginning of the Third Republic. Despite a relatively stable population, a new urban fabric began to develop, especially around the new station area. From its medieval origins to the Second Empire, village life was organized primarily around the church and the adjoining square, the current
Place de la Republique. The installation of a religious boarding school in 1857, which was one of the first buildings to be built in the second half of the 19th century in
Aigrefeuille, paved the way for urban planning work which also continued during the Third Republic. During the Second Empire, the centre of the village began to change. A new square, surrounded by chestnut trees, was set up to accommodate a showground for livestock, and this business made
Aigrefeuille one of the largest markets in
Aunis. The commune had 1,648 inhabitants at that time and remained by far the largest town in the canton although its population had been in decline for more than a decade. The crisis of
phylloxera came in 1875 in the
Saintonge vineyards, and the following year reached
Aunis. This led to profound economic changes on the plain of
Aunis where the vineyards were gradually abandoned. They were replaced by forage crops for dairy farming. In Aunis, this new agricultural activity grew rapidly thanks to the powerful dairy cooperative movement begun in 1888 in Chaillé in the Commune of
Saint-Georges-du-Bois which then spread to
Saintonge and
Poitou before the 20th century. Together with dairy farming, cereal cropping also grew for which the cultivable land of the plain of
Aunis is particularly well suited.
Sugar beet, another crop which was very new for the region prospered in the late 19th century in
Aunis, and especially in the ''Canton of Aigrefeuille d'Aunis''. Thus the city was able to successfully convert its viticulture economy by developing an agro-food industry with the cooperative dairy and the industrial distillery of sugar beet, while maintaining its cognac distillery, has acquired a high profile in the region. According to demographic data from
INSEE, the population peak came in 1876 with 1,881 inhabitants. It marked the maximum population of the commune in the 19th century that was not exceeded until 1968, nearly a century later.
Lethargy and renewal in the 20th century At the beginning of the 20th century until after the Second World War, Aigrefeuille d'Aunis went into a long period of decline, resulting in the stagnation of economic activities and an almost continuous decline in population. ''Aigrefeuille d'Aunis
could not maintain its position as a railway junction. In October 1933, passenger and cargo traffic were finally stopped between Rochefort
and Aigrefeuille d'Aunis''. The activities of the locomotive depot gradually reduced and then the depot was dismantled. The station could still accommodate passenger traffic on the railway line from Paris-La Rochelle, but it lost much of its importance, while the NR139 highway was moved further south, diverting transit traffic outside the town.
Aigrefeuille thus lost the opportunity to develop a real rail and road intersection. In addition, the diversification of industrial activities stopped in the commune. The abandonment of the beet sugar industry brought about the end of the distillery at the end of the 1930s. The decline was amplified since the rural exodus initiated by the long crisis of
phylloxera. ''Aigrefeuille d'Aunis'' did not escape this trend of rural decline and could not stop the depopulation of the township, which lasted until the Second World War. New economic activities were little source of employment, while the vineyards had required abundant labour. Thus, the changing demographics of the commune of ''Aigrefeuille d'Aunis'' and its canton followed from the impact of the serious wine crisis, resulting in an almost continuous demographic decline from 1876 to 1946. During this period, the city recorded a dramatic decline in its population with a population loss of 607 inhabitants, a decrease of one-third of the population (-32.3%). Moreover, this demographic decline was clearly felt in the cessation of planning work at the end of the 19th century. In the first half of the 20th century, ''Aigrefeuille d'Aunis'' entered a period of lethargy and the commune stagnated. The sumptuous period of major urban work undertaken during the second half of the 19th century which was a "golden age" for the town was over. At the end of the Second World War the town of ''Aigrefeuille d'Aunis'' was considerably damaged and its factories were largely destroyed (mills, dairy factory, beet distillery), as well as transport infrastructure (bridges over railway lines and the railway station district, roads, electric power grid). It was only in the time after the Second World War that the city experienced a revival, based on economic and urban development, which significantly transformed the commune.
Heraldry ==Economy==