- Département
- Marne (Grand Est region)
- Site
- Coole valley, now a hamlet of Faux-Vésigneul
- Source
- Wikipedia, eigene Zusammenfassung
Fontaine-sur-Coole is a former village in the Marne département, on the River Coole, and part of Faux-Vésigneul since 1970. It plays no role as a cru, but its 13th-century church is worth seeing.
Location
Fontaine-sur-Coole is a former independent village in the Marne département, in the Grand Est region. The name gives away its setting: the village lies on the Coole, a tributary of the Marne. The D 4 and D 79 departmental roads run through it. If you want to explore Champagne away from the famous wine villages, this is a quiet corner of rural Marne.
Since 16 October 1970, Fontaine-sur-Coole has no longer been a commune in its own right. It was merged into the commune of Faux-Vésigneul as a simple merger (fusion simple). The village itself, however, lives on.
A name with a long history
The spelling of the village name has changed many times over the centuries. The sources record, among others:
- in the 13th century the Latin form “Villa que dicitur Fontes”
- 1350 “Fontaingnes”
- 1384 “Fontaines-sur-Coole”
- 1462 “Fontaine-sur-Coole” for the first time, in its present form
- 1636 “Fontaine-soubz-Coolle”
- 1755 the learned double form “Fontanæ ad Coslam vulgo Fontaine-sur-Colle”
It always means the same thing: the springs on the little River Coole.
Allegiance before the Revolution
In 1789 the village belonged to the Élection de Châlons, a tax and administrative district of the Ancien Régime. Legally, however, it followed the Coutume de Vitry, the customary law of Vitry. This shows that the village sat between two centres of the region: Châlons and Vitry.
What to see
The most important building is the church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste, dating from the 13th century. That makes it contemporary with the first mention of the village under the name Fontes. Our source names no other sights, so it is best to treat a visit as a detour on a drive through the Marne département.
What it means for champagne lovers
Fontaine-sur-Coole is neither grand cru nor premier cru, and it is not one of the well-known champagne towns either. We have no reliable information about viticulture or champagne houses in the village, so we claim nothing here. The village is interesting as an example of the many small places that shape the picture of Champagne away from the big names. If you want to visit, the best plan is to combine the trip with destinations in the better-known parts of the region.
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