One of the southernmost municipalities of the Niort Urban Community, on the border of Deux-Sèvres and Charente-Maritime, the least extensive and populated in the canton of Mauze-sur-le-Mignon, Priaire(s), which is written with or without final s, is cited for the first time in 1044 in the cartulary of the abbey of Saint-Jean-d'Angély and belonged to Aunis as part of the generality and the election of La Rochelle, then Deux-Sèvres in 1790. Its terroir was formerly in one of the Cognac appellation zones. The vine, cultivated over a large area, produced excellent brandy until the phylloxera crisis of 1873 gradually giving way to cooperative dairies and cereal crops. In 2019, the village merged with usseau et Thorigny-sur-le-Mignon to form the new commune of Val du Mignon and becomes a delegated municipality whose capital is usseau. Imbued with rurality, today it welcomes the only farm in the department certified sustainable agriculture et a tobacco producer. It is by taking the time to stroll along the Sudden and Sew it that we discover the richness of built heritage strongly inspired by the architecture of the neighboring Charentais department. Its warm limestone mound is also conducive to the flourishing of around thirty varieties of orchids growing in the woods and along berms (narrow paths made between a canal and an earth embankment): Goat orchis, Spider ophrys, Woodcock ophrys, Hanged man orchis, Bird's nest neottie...
What to see in Priaire(s)?
01. Notre-Dame church
In a charter of July 1039, William I, lord of Parthenay (1-990), invited by Pope John XIX to take the abbey of Saint-Jean-d'Angély under his protection, assigned the court to him (curtis) of Prayer(s). This donation is at the origin of the foundation of the priory (now disappeared). Formerly dependent on the diocese of Saintes and the archpriest of Surgères, the church is united with the parish ofusseau in 1813. It replaces the old sanctuary whose poverty was highlighted by visits in 1688 and 1718.
To have : baptismal font from 1629 and curious bell tower-wall in brace arch decorated with hooks and topped with a cross.
