Lagamas

Lagamas
Commune
The town hall
Coat of arms
Location of Lagamas
Lagamas Lagamas
Coordinates: 43°40′29″N 3°31′26″E
Country	France
Region	Occitania
Department	Hérault
Arrondissement	Lodève
Canton	Gignac
Intercommunality	Vallée de l'Hérault
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Christian Viloing
Area 1	4.52 km2 (1.75 sq mi)
Population  (2021)	110
• Density	24/km2 (63/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	34125 /34150
Elevation	33–142 m (108–466 ft) (avg. 40 m or 130 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Lagamas (Occitan: L'Agamàs) is a commune in the Hérault département in the Occitanie region in southern France.

Geography

Map

This commune is located in the Languedoc-Roussillon region, in the Hérault département, in the canton of Gignac. The village is part of the 4th constituency of Hérault.

Climate

In 2020, Météo-France published a typology of climates in mainland France in which the commune is exposed to a Mediterranean climate and is part of the Provence, Languedoc-Roussillon climatic region, characterised by low rainfall in summer, very good sunshine (2,600 h/year), a hot summer 21.5 °C (71 °F), very dry air in summer, dry conditions in all seasons, strong winds (frequency of 40 to 50% of winds > 5 m/s), and little fog.

For the period 1971-2000, the average annual temperature was 14.3 °C (58 °F) with an annual atmospheric temperature of 16.5 °C (62 °F). The average annual total rainfall during this period was 849 mm, with 6.8 days of precipitation in January and 3.1 days in July. For the subsequent period of 1991 to 2020, the average annual temperature observed at the nearest weather station, located in the commune of Saint-André-de-Sangonis, 3 km away as the crow flies, is 15.5 °C (60 °F) and the average annual total rainfall is 652.4 mm.

For the future, climate parameters for the municipality projected for 2050, based on different greenhouse gas emission scenarios, can be consulted on a dedicated website published by Météo-France in November 2022.

Urbanism

Land use

The commune's land use, as revealed by the European biophysical land cover database Corine Land Cover (CLC), is characterised by the importance of agricultural land (96.9% in 2018), an increase compared to 1990 (77%). The detailed breakdown in 2018 is as follows: permanent crops (56.5%), heterogeneous agricultural areas (40.4%), forests (3%). Changes in land use in the municipality and its infrastructure can be seen on various maps of the area: the Cassini map (eighteenth century), the carte d'état-major (1820-1866) and IGN maps or aerial photos for the current period (1950 to the present).

Map of infrastructure and land use in the municipality in 2018 (CLC)

Population

Changes in the number of inhabitants have been documented through population censuses conducted in the commune since 1793. For communes with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, a full census of the population is conducted every five years, with the legal populations for the intervening years estimated through interpolation or extrapolation. For this commune, the first complete census under the new system was carried out in 2005.

In 2021, the commune had a population of 110, unchanged from 2015 (Hérault: +7.29%, France excluding Mayotte: +1.84%).

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1793 60 —     1800 72 +2.64% 1806 67 −1.19% 1821 120 +3.96% 1831 63 −6.24% 1836 68 +1.54% 1841 78 +2.78% 1846 70 −2.14% 1851 71 +0.28% 1856 78 +1.90% 1861 70 −2.14% 1866 87 +4.44% 1872 66 −4.50% 1876 73 +2.55% 1881 71 −0.55% 1886 59 −3.64% 1891 60 +0.34% 1896 70 +3.13% 1901 71 +0.28% 1906 65 −1.75%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1911 64 −0.31% 1921 74 +1.46% 1926 73 −0.27% 1931 78 +1.33% 1936 65 −3.58% 1946 41 −4.50% 1954 62 +5.31% 1962 61 −0.20% 1968 46 −4.59% 1975 43 −0.96% 1982 56 +3.85% 1990 71 +3.01% 1999 111 +5.09% 2005 113 +0.30% 2006 121 +7.08% 2010 114 −1.48% 2015 110 −0.71% 2020 111 +0.18% 2021 110 −0.90%
Source: Ldh/EHESS/Cassini until 1999, and INSEE since 2006.

Architecture

The church, Notre-Dame de la Garrigue, was built by Élodie Martin, the widow of the textile magnate Jean-Pierre Balsan as a homage to her husband. The Balsan family is known to have inhabited Lagamas since at least 1576. The church, with its unusual gothic style, is a miniature inspired by the Châteauroux cathedral, a city where the Balsan family had acquired the Manufacture Royale de Drap de Châteauroux in 1856.

The church was completed in around 1874. An extensive renovation was finalised in 2007.

The same widow built the large mansion facing the church, known locally as the château. It hosts an annual multi-disciplinary artist residency organised by the Cornelius Arts Foundation.

See also

• Communes of the Hérault department