Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot

The church in Sainte-Livrade

Coat of arms

Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot

Location within Nouvelle-Aquitaine region

Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot

Coordinates: 44°23′56″N 0°35′25″E / 44.3989°N 0.5903°ECoordinates: 44°23′56″N 0°35′25″E / 44.3989°N 0.5903°E

Country

Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot

Intercommunality

Villeneuvois

Government

• Mayor (2008–2014)

Claire Pasut

Area¹

30.94 km² (11.95 sq mi)

Population (2011)²

6,182

• Density

200/km² (520/sq mi)

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

• Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

INSEE/Postal code

47252 / 47110

Elevation

37–194 m (121–636 ft)
(avg. 50 m or 160 ft)

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

²Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in south-western France.

Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot is located along the banks of Lot River.

Human inhabitation has been present around the area since the early Iron Age. The commune of Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot itself was founded in 1289 as Sainte-Livrade d'Olt, Olt being the Occitan and former name of the Lot River. The current name was adopted in December 1919.

Despite its small size, Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot is a multicultural town that has been host to numerous immigrant communities since the 20th century. The first prominent immigrant community to the town were Italians who escaped the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini during the 1920s and 1930s. They were soon followed by Spanish immigrants, also escaping fascism in their homeland under Francisco Franco.

Following the First Indochina War in 1954, in which Vietnam won its independence from France, Vietnamese troops who fought alongside the French were brought to metropolitan France as a recognition for their loyalty to the country and for fear that they would be persecuted by the new independent government. The troops, along with their families, were housed at camps designated as Centre d'accueil des Français d'Indochine, of which Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot hosted the largest of three.

Later immigrant communities to the town included Pied-Noirs from the newly independent former French colony of Algeria following the Algerian War in 1962. Immigrants from the Maghreb, especially Algeria, also began arriving in the 1970s and 1980s.

In 2011, the population of the commune was 6,182.

After France's defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and Vietnam's independence from France in 1954, roughly five thousand Vietnamese troops who fought for France, as well as their families and Vietnamese married to French colonists, were repatriated to the country. Their arrival led to the creation of refugee camps designated as (Center for the Reception of the French of Indochina), of which Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot hosted the largest, containing nearly 1,500 people at its height. The camp was converted into barracks from a World War II munitions factory, in which residents lived in rudimentary conditions with a government sponsored hospital and school.

...
Wikipedia