Masseube

Masseube (Masseuva in Gascon) is a commune in the Gers department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France.

Masseube
Commune
A house in Masseube
Coat of arms
Location of Masseube
Masseube Show map of France Masseube Show map of Occitanie
Coordinates: 43°25′51″N 0°34′47″E
Country	France
Region	Occitanie
Department	Gers
Arrondissement	Mirande
Canton	Astarac-Gimone
Intercommunality	Val de Gers
Government
• Mayor (2008–2014)	Jean-Pierre Bru
Area ^1	21.03 km^2 (8.12 sq mi)
Population  (2017-01-01)[1]	1,520
• Density	72/km^2 (190/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	32242 /32140
Elevation	188–306 m (617–1,004 ft) (avg. 200 m or 660 ft)
^1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km^2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Geography

Masseube and its surrounding communes

History

Masseube ("The farmhouse of the forest") was originally the name of a farm belonging to Escaladieu Abbey, in Bigorre. In 1274, the Abbey and Bernard IV of Astarac founded a Bastide in Masseube. It got its customary laws 2 years later. The bastide still has its streets at right angles, an old on the common house which is now the Mairie, and houses built with timber.

This little town held an internment camp during WW II run by the Vichy government. It was a forest products labor camp described below. About forty laborers died there. Vichy persecuted Jews, and many of those who perished in the Masseube camp were Jewish, ie we not transferred to a nearby hospital.

Une quarantaine d’internés du camp de Masseube sont décédés pendant leur internement. La moitié d’entre eux sont morts à l’hôpital d’Auch et ont été enterrés au cimetière de la ville. Les autres, décédés au camp même ont été inhumés au cimetière communal de Masseube. Ces derniers étaient sur- tout des Juifs et plus exactement des Juives dont les tombes ont été relevées après-guerre ou dans les années soixante, pour être transférées dans des ci- metières juifs, notamment à Portet-sur-Garonne et Bayonne à notre connaissance, excepté celle de Gustav Herz. On peut y lire la mention : « Décédé au camp de MASSEUBE».....from Emmanuel de Luget "CAMP DE MASSEUBE

Population

Its inhabitants are called Massylvains

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1793	1,336	—
1800	1,294	−3.1%
1806	1,455	+12.4%
1821	1,447	−0.5%
1831	1,640	+13.3%
1841	1,806	+10.1%
1846	1,776	−1.7%
1851	1,760	−0.9%
1856	1,781	+1.2%
1861	1,682	−5.6%
1866	1,804	+7.3%
1872	1,769	−1.9%
1876	1,765	−0.2%
1881	1,720	−2.5%
1886	1,757	+2.2%
1891	1,614	−8.1%
1896	1,511	−6.4%
1901	1,502	−0.6%
1906	1,456	−3.1%
1911	1,431	−1.7%
1921	1,146	−19.9%
1926	1,177	+2.7%
1931	1,153	−2.0%
1936	1,147	−0.5%
1946	1,357	+18.3%
1954	1,242	−8.5%
1962	1,230	−1.0%
1968	1,316	+7.0%
1975	1,309	−0.5%
1982	1,376	+5.1%
1990	1,453	+5.6%
1999	1,391	−4.3%
2008	1,594	+14.6%
2012	1,532	−3.9%

Sites of interest

• Église Saint-Christophe, originally from the 13th Century c., was reconstructed in 1700; it was again rebuilt in 1883 when it was threatening to topple. The only conserved pieces are the lower part of the façade and the tower. The rest was reconstructed in the style of the 13th Century. In 1932-33, in honor of the 50th year after the renovation, Paul Noël Lasseran was called to paint murals. He finished a majority of them before his death in 1933.
• Rue Lagrange: This road is spanned by a cover which connects to buildings which were originally agricultural.

Notable people

• Jean-Marie Ducos: Deputy of Gers and member of the First French Parliament from 1798-99.

Heraldry

The coat of arms was changed in 2009.[2]

See also

• Communes of the Gers department

References

• INSEE

1. "Populations légales 2017". INSEE. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-05-15. Retrieved 2013-06-06.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)