Prads-Haute-Bléone (; Prats Auta Blèuna in Vivaro-Alpine) is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department and in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.
The people of Prads-Haute-Bléone are called Pradins.
Geography The neighboring communes of Prads-Haute-Bléone are Méolans-Revel, Allos, Villars-Colmars, Thorame-Basse, Draix, La Javie, Beaujeu and Verdaches.
The village lies on the right bank of the Bléone, which has its source in the northeastern part of the commune and flows southwest through the middle of the commune.
The municipality of Prads-Haute-Bléone extends over . It is composed of nine hamlets ranging in elevation from 800 to 1,450 metres. The main settlement of Prads is at , and the highest peak is the Tête de l'Estrop at in the Massif des Trois-Évêchés at the border with Méolans-Revel. This is also the highest summit of the Provence Alps and Prealps.
It is common with the type of high valleys of the Southern Alps, enjoying a climate which is very sunny, cold, dry, and with a snow line at approximately .
Geology During the two last major glaciations, Riss glaciation and Würm glaciation, major glaciers occupied the valleys of the commune. A first glacier, reduced, occupied the top of the Valley of the Galebre (formerly commune of Mariaud). A great glacier flowed into the Bléone Valley; It received tributaries from the glacier valleys of the ravine of Bussing, Riou and the ravine of Jet des Eaux and Riou de l’Aune. The Riss glacier descended to Blegiers; the Würm glaciation was less thick and stopped below Heyre.
The valleys of the southern entrance to the town (Champourcin, Chanolles, Blegiers) are situated in limestone mountains of the Jurassic period. Further upstream and to left bank of the Bléone, the Carton and the Chau ridges are more recent limestone formations of the Upper Cretaceous. In front of these formations at the right bank, the Galabre ridge which separates the Bléone Valley is composed of Bathonian limestone. This has beds of marl, alternating with shallow (less than a meter) limestone and shale marl.
Relief
Tête de l'Estrop, Tête Noire Le Caduc Col de Talon
Hydrography The commune is crossed by the Bléone and Galabre.
Environment The commune has of woods and forests, or 45% of its area.
Hamlets Commune of Prads: Prads Tercier Les Eaux Chaudes (an ancient camp in ruins) La Favière Former commune of Blégiers: Blégiers Champourcin Chanolles Chavailles La Colle (uninhabited since 1982) Les Combes Heyre Former commune of Mariaud: L’Adrech (uninhabited since 1928) L’Immérée (uninhabited since 1914) Pré Fourcha (uninhabited since 1934) Saume Longue Vière (uninhabited since 1934, under restoration)
Transport
Natural and technological hazards
With respect to seismic activity, the area of Prads-Haute-Bléone is in zone 4 (medium risk) according to the probabilistic classification EC8 of 2011. The municipality of Prads-Haute-Bléone is also exposed to three other natural hazards:
Avalanche (only the Ministry recognises this risk, but not the prefecture) Forest fire Landslide: mudflows have occurred in the commune after heavy rainfall in July 2005
The municipality of Prads-Haute-Bléone is exposed to any of the risks of technological origin identified by the prefecture. The predictable natural (PPR) of the municipality was approved in 1993 for the risk of land movement; the does not exist. The commune was the subject to an avalanche, in 2009. In July 2005, the municipality also had significant mudslides after heavy rains.Préfecture des Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, DDRM, op. cit., p. 33. The following list includes earthquakes felt strongly in the town. They exceed a macro-seismic intensity level V on the MSK scale (sleepers awake, falling objects). The specified intensities are those felt in the town, the intensity can be stronger at the epicentre:
The earthquake of 8 February 1974, with an intensity level V and with Thorame-Haute and Basse at the epicentre, The earthquake of 31 October 1997, with an intensity level VI and whose epicentre was located in the municipality of Prads-Haute-Bléone.
On 5 and 6 November 1968, Prads had one of the first landslides of magnitude which was studied in detail by geomorphologists. It was produced in the Ravin de la Frache (an Occitan term that precisely refers to a zone of talus), in l'Adret and located beneath the summit of Belle Valette.
In the autumn of 1967, already marked by heavy rains, the cracks in the ground expanded. During the winter of 1967–1968, the successions of freeze-thaw lubricated the sliding surfaces. The rainy spring only aggravated the instability of the land. During the autumn 1968 rains, more than a year after the start of the sequence, a flow was triggered resulting in a blackish marl-limestone detrital mass and marl-shale colluvium.
Toponymy The name of the village, as it appears for the first time the 9th century (Colonia in Prato) is derived from the Latin pratum (pré). The plural is recent. The Bléone name means Wolf River.
Mariaud appears in the texts at the beginning of the 13th century, but in the form of Mariano: According to Ernest Nègre, the place name derived from the proper Roman name of Marianus, which has evolved from Mariaudo (1319), by attraction to the Provençal local maridado, meaning wedding. Other hypotheses exist.
Blegiers is mentioned for the first time in charters in the second decade of the 12th century, in the form de Bligerio, derived from the Germanic name Blidegar, possibly Latinized as Blidegarius.
Chanolles, cited in 1122 (Canola), comes from the Pre-Celtic oronym (mountain toponym) *Kan-.
The name of the summit of Chappe at , bordering on Beaujeu, is maintained in the existence of an optical telegraph relay, known as .
The name of the locality of la Favière evokes a planted field of beans (); that of Combes designates a ravine (similar to combe), downstream of the village of Prads.
Economy
In 2017, the active population amounted to 69 people, including 10 unemployed. These workers are in majority employees (68%), and are in majority employed outside the commune (52%).Dossier complet: Commune de Prads-Haute-Bléone (04155)
At the end of 2015, the primary sector (agriculture, forestry, fishing) had 14 active institutions within the meaning of Insee (including non-professional operators and self-employment).
The number of professional farms, according to the Agreste survey of the Ministry of Agriculture, is nine in 2010. It was 11 in 2000, and 18 in 1988. Currently, these operators are divided into sheep and vegetable farmers. From 1988 to 2000, the usable agricultural land (SAU) had significantly increased, from to . The SAU has dropped during the last decade, to .
At the end of 2015, the secondary sector (industry and construction) had 8 establishments, employing one worker. The hydroelectric power plant of Chanolles used the waters of the Bléone. The turbine had an output of 210kW.
Formerly, hydropower sawmills were installed in Champourcin, Blegiers and Prads. They all ceased operation in the 20th century. In 2013, a new artisanal sawmill was created in the village of Blegiers.D. Ch., « À Blégiers, les Giroux et le bois c'est une affaire de famille », La Provence, 5 mars 2013, p. 4.
At the end of 2015, the tertiary sector (shops, transport, services) had eight institutions (one salaried employee), in addition to seven institutions in the administrative sector (together with the health and social sector and education), with six people employed. According to the Observatoire départemental du tourisme, the tourist function is very important for the municipality, with more than five tourists accommodated per capita, despite a low capacity of accommodation for tourist purposes:
Several branded as furnished and a number non-furnished. The only capacity for any collective accommodation is located in the shelters.
Secondary residences complement the capacity: with a number of 212, they represent 65% of dwellings.
The bistro at the Trois Évêchés, which carries the brand, adheres to a charter which aims to "contribute to the conservation and the animation of the economic and social fabric in rural areas by maintaining a place in village life".
There is also a centre for excursions and hikes.
History In ancient times, Bodiontiques (Bodiontici) lived in the Valley of the Bléone, and were therefore the Gallic people who lived in the valleys of the current commune of Prads-Haute-Bléone. The Bodiontiques, who were defeated by Augustus at the same time as other peoples present on the Trophy of the Alps (before 14 BC) are attached to the Roman province of Alpes Maritimae at its inception.Brigitte Beaujard, «Les cités de la Gaule méridionale du IIIe au VIIe s.», Gallia, 63, 2006, CNRS éditions, p. 22.
The communities of Blegiers, Champourcin, Chanolles, Chavailles, Mariaud and Prads were all of the Bailli of Digne.
Prads
The locality of Prads appears for the first time in charters in the High Middle Ages, as Prato, dependent upon the Abbey of Saint Victor in Marseille. It stood at the junction of the dioceses of Digne, Senez, and Embrun.Baratier, Duby et Hilsdesheimer, op. cit., carte 77 Ordre divers (XIIe-XIVe siècle)
The Abbey of Cistercian monks of Notre-Dame de Faillefeu (or meadows: the Abbot was called "the Abbot of the meadows") was founded in 1144 by the monks of . They founded the on 3 February 1199 (the date of the Charter of Foundation). In 1298, it belongs to the Cluny Abbey, and then passes under the authority of the college Saint-Martial in Avignon. The abbey was eventually looted, ransacked and abandoned during the French Wars of Religion.
The tithes were levied by the Chapter of Digne.
In 1843, the priest of the parish, Paul Charpenel, writes the annals of the parish of Prads, not published to date. One of the municipal measures from this period is the construction of a public fountain in the village, under the Second Republic, in 1850.
The coup d'état of 2 December 1851 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte against the Second Republic caused an armed uprising in the Basses-Alpes, in defense of the constitution. After the failure of the uprising, severe repression descended on those who stood up to defend the Republic, which included an inhabitant of Prads.Henri Joannet, Jean-Pierre Pinatel, « Arrestations-condamnations », 1851-Pour mémoire, Les Mées : Les Amis des Mées, 2001, p. 72.
As with many municipalities of the department, Prads acquired schools well before the Jules Ferry laws: in 1863, it had three, located in Prads, la Favière and Tercier. These schools provided a primary education to boys. While the Falloux Laws of 1851, required the opening of a girls school in communes with more than 800 inhabitants, Prads maintained a girls school in the 1860s, but that school closed before the end of the Second Empire. It is only since the Ferry Laws that Prads girls have attended school regularly.
Blégiers In the Middle Ages, during the 12th century, the village of Blégiers (Bligerium) moved to the Roche-de-Blégiers, on a hilltop site. The community had a consulate in the 13th century.Édouard Baratier, « carte 45 : Les consulats de Provence et du Comtat (XIIe-XIIIe siècles) », in Atlas historique de la Provence Its population increased from 81 feus in 1315, with another 14 in 1471. At this time, it was still part of the Chapter of Digne that owned the domain and the Church of the Roche-de-Blégiers, before selling these in 1476 to the . From that date, it was the Bishop who appointed the responsible chaplain of the souls of this parish, and who collects revenues attached to this church.