page_title: Aigrefeuille-d'Aunis
section_title: The phylloxera crisis of 1876
hierarchical_section_title: Aigrefeuille-d'Aunis / History / The 19th century, the century of great changes / The phylloxera crisis of 1876
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: La mairie d'Aigrefeuille (17) vue depuis la place de la République à l'angle de la rue de l'Aunis et de la rue des Marronniers.
context_page_description: Aigrefeuille-d'Aunis is a French commune in the Charente-Maritime department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of south-western France.
  The inhabitants are known as Aigrefeuillais or Aigrefeuillaises.
  By population as well as by economic weight, it is the first city in the Community of Communes of Plaine d'Aunis and it is one of the three main urban centres of the Pays d'Aunis along with Surgères and Marans.
  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.
context_section_description: The outline of a new urban fabric, emerging from the Second Empire, continued during the Third Republic at least until the end of the 19th century. The transformation of the original village into a large rural town was progressively achieved with the construction of new public and religious buildings.
  In 1875 a chapel was built for the religious boarding school, followed a year later by the construction of the new Police Station. Finally, the church underwent a complete restoration in the late 19th century when the tower in particular was rebuilt and topped with a tall spire, a sign of local wealth. The work was completed in 1896.
  The commune took the name of Aigrefeuille d'Aunis on 11 September 1891.
  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 be exceeded until 1968, nearly a century later.
caption: The commune took the name of Aigrefeuille d'Aunis on 11 September 1891.
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