Authie, Calvados

Authie
Authie
Commune
	Authie Town Hall
	Location of Authie
	Authie Authie
	Coordinates: 49°12′24″N 0°25′50″W / 49.2067°N 0.4306°W
Country	France
Region	Normandy
Department	Calvados
Arrondissement	Caen
Canton	Caen-2
Intercommunality	CU Caen Mer
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Olivier Simar
Area 1	3.21 km2 (1.24 sq mi)
Population (2021)	1,676
• Density	520/km2 (1,400/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	14030 /14280
Elevation	60–73 m (197–240 ft) ; (avg. 65 m or 213 ft)
	1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Authie (French: [oti] ^ⓘ) is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region of north-western France.

The commune has been awarded one flower by the National Council of Towns and Villages in Bloom in the Competition of cities and villages in Bloom.^[3]

Geography

Authie is located some 6 km (4 mi) north-west of the centre of Caen. Access to the commune is by road D220 from Villons-les-Buissons in the north-east which passes through the centre of the commune and the village and continues to Carpiquet in the south. The D220C also goes south-east from the village to the urban area of Caen. There are also the hamlets of Hameau de Saint-Louet, Franqueville, Fermie du Calvaire, and Cussy in the commune. Apart from the large residential area the commune is entirely farmland.^[4]

Toponymy

The name of the town is attested in the forms Alteium in 1227 and Auteya in 1264.^[5]

Albert Dauzat matched Authie with Authie in Somme department (Altegiam 830) on the coastal river Authie (Alteia 723) and considers it primarily as a hydronym but does not provide any further explanation.^[6]

According to René Lepelley this toponym is based on the pre-Celtic element alt in an unknown sense and is close to Authou in Pont-Authou.^[7]

François de Beaurepaire sees a Gallic (Celtic) element in the alt in Authou.^[8]

The Gallic term Attegia was recognized by Xavier Delamarre in Atheist-type names - e.g. Athis in the sense of "cabin or hut".^[9]

This analyses to ad- (pre-verb) and tegia meaning "house" (cf. Old Irish teg, old Welsh tig, Welsh Ty, Old Breton tig, and Breton ti all meaning "house").^[10]

It is likely that Authie contains the same element tegia preceded by another prefix. From a phonetic point of view there is a palatalization of the intervocalic consonant where [g] becomes [j] and then an Amuïssement or attenuation of [j]>[∅], a recurrent phenomenon in phonetics.

The same author explains that Arthies (Artegiae 680) may come from *Are-tegia which is a possible solution for Authie, knowing that [r] regularly becomes [l] before a consonant.

The name Altavilla is either a medieval romanization of a place named Hauteville as in Hauteville in Manche department and therefore does not relate to Authie. It may be a scribal error for *Alteia Villa or *Villa Alteia which mentions a villa, i.e. a rural area in medieval Latin, in a place called Alteia which is Authie.

History

In 1832 Authie (466 inhabitants in 1831) absorbed Saint-Louet-près-Authie (9 people)^[11] in the west of its territory.

The commune was liberated on 8 June 1944 but was largely destroyed in the bombing.

Administration

List of Successive Mayors^[12]

From	To	Name
1983	2020	Joël Pizy
2020	2026	Olivier Simar

Twinning

Authie has twinning associations with:^[13]

North Baddesley (United Kingdom) since 1993.

Demography

The inhabitants of the commune are known as Althavillais or Althavillaises in French.^[14]

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1793	650	—
1800	382	−7.31%
1806	565	+6.74%
1821	571	+0.07%
1831	466	−2.01%
1836	625	+6.05%
1841	623	−0.06%
1846	630	+0.22%
1851	593	−1.20%
1856	567	−0.89%
1861	500	−2.48%
1866	453	−1.95%
1872	434	−0.71%
1876	425	−0.52%
1881	369	−2.79%
1886	382	+0.69%
1891	394	+0.62%
1896	358	−1.90%

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1901	361	+0.17%
1906	313	−2.81%
1911	262	−3.49%
1921	266	+0.15%
1926	294	+2.02%
1931	302	+0.54%
1936	348	+2.88%
1946	202	−5.29%
1954	348	+7.04%
1962	414	+2.19%
1968	514	+3.67%
1975	571	+1.51%
1982	645	+1.76%
1990	780	+2.40%
1999	983	+2.60%
2007	1,349	+4.04%
2012	1,487	+1.97%
2017	1,595	+1.41%

Source: EHESS^[15] and INSEE^[16]

Culture and heritage

Civil heritage

The commune has one site that is registered as an historical monument:

An Ornamental Garden in the Château of Authie (18th century)^[17]
The Monument to the Canadians dedicated to the victims of the taking of the village in 1944

Religious heritage

The commune has two religious buildings and structures that are registered as historical monuments:

The Church of Saint Vigor (12th century)^[18]
A Cemetery Cross (18th century)^[19]

The Church contains one item that is registered as an historical object:

A Bronze Bell (1704)^[20]

Saint Vigor church
Saint-Vigor Portal
Detail on the Portal
A detail on the church
The Vault in the church
The Nave of the church
The Cemetery Cross

References

^ "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 13 September 2022.
^ "Populations légales 2021" (in French). The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
^ Authie in the Competition for Towns and Villages in Bloom Archived December 10, 2014, at the Wayback Machine (in French)
^ ^a ^b Google Maps
^ Albert Dauzat and Charles Rostaing, Etymological Dictionary of place names in France, Librairie Guénégaud Paris 6th edition, 1979, p. 39a. (in French)
^ Albert Dauzat and Charles Rostaing, op. cit.
^ René Lepelley, Etymological Dictionary of commune names in Normandy, Charles Corlet éditions PUC 1994, p. 54b - 55a. ISBN 978-2-905461-80-3 (in French)
^ The names of communes and old parishes in Eure, A. and J. Picard, François de Beaurepaire, preface by Marcel Baudot, 1981, Paris, 221 pages, ISBN 2-7084-0067-3, OCLC 9675154, p. 56 (in French)
^ Xavier Delamarre, Dictionary of the Gallic language, éditions Errance 2003, p. 59. (in French)
^ Xavier Delamarre, op. cit. (in French)
^ Des villages de Cassini aux communes d'aujourd'hui: Commune data sheet Saint-Louet-près-Authie, EHESS (in French).
^ List of Mayors of France (in French)
^ National Commission for Decentralised cooperation (in French)
^ Le nom des habitants du 14 - Calvados, habitants.fr
^ Des villages de Cassini aux communes d'aujourd'hui: Commune data sheet Authie, EHESS (in French).
^ Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE
^ Ministry of Culture, Mérimée IA80000395 Ornamental Garden in the Château of Authie (in French)
^ Ministry of Culture, Mérimée PA00111024 Church of Saint Vigor (in French)
^ Ministry of Culture, Mérimée PA00111023 Cemetery Cross (in French)
^ Ministry of Culture, Palissy PM80000272 Bronze bell (in French)