Creuse (French pronunciation: ​[kʁøz]; Occitan: Cruesa) is a department in central France named after the Creuse River.

History

Creuse is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from the former province of La Marche.

The County of Marche (Occitan: la Marcha) was a medieval French county, approximately corresponding to the modern département of Creuse. Marche first appeared as a separate fief about the middle of the 10th century, when William III, Duke of Aquitaine, gave it to one of his vassals named Boso, who took the title of count. In the 12th century, the countship passed to the family of Lusignan. They also were sometimes counts of Angoulême and counts of Limousin. With the death of the childless Count Guy in 1308, his possessions in La Marche were seized by Philip IV of France. In 1316 the king made La Marche an appanage for his youngest son the Prince, afterwards Charles IV. Several years later in 1327, La Marche passed into the hands of the House of Bourbon. The family of Armagnac held it from 1435 to 1477, when it reverted to the Bourbons. In 1527 La Marche was seized by Francis I and became part of the domains of the French crown. It was divided into Haute Marche and Basse Marche, the estates of the former continuing until the 17th century. From 1470 until the Revolution, the province was under the jurisdiction of the parlement of Paris.

The Creuse (Occitan: Cruesa) is a 264-kilometre (164 mi) long river in western France, a tributary of the river Vienne. Its source is in the Plateau de Millevaches, a north-western extension of the Massif Central.

Course

The Creuse flows northwest through the following departments and towns:

The Creuse flows into the river Vienne about 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of Châtellerault. A tributary of the river Creuse is the Gartempe.

The Creuse valley is the setting for paintings by the so-called Crozant School, including works by Armand Guillaumin and a series of vivid landscapes by the Bordeaux artist Alfred Smith.

Dams and lakes

There are six hydroelectric dams on the river. Three are in the Creuse département with one at Chambon-Sainte-Croix above Anzeme, one at Les Chezelles near Le Bourg-d'Hem and one at L'Âge upstream of La Celle-Dunoise. The remaining three are in the Indre including the Éguzon dam which was opened in 1926 and was, at the time, the largest dam in Europe. The lakes created by the dams are popular tourist destinations and several have artificial beaches and leisure facilities.

Creuse may refer to: