Menat, Puy-de-Dôme

Commune in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France

Coat of arms

Location of Menat

(2020–2026) Jean-Yves Arnaud^[1]Area

20.31 km² (7.84 sq mi)Population

(2021)^[2]

540 • Density27/km² (69/sq mi)DemonymMenatoisTime zoneUTC+01:00 (CET) • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)INSEE/Postal code

63223 /63560

Elevation346–674 m (1,135–2,211 ft)Websitewww.commune-de-menat.com¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Menat (French pronunciation: [məna]) is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in central France. It is in the heart of the valley of Sioule.

Its neighboring municipalities are Saint-Éloy-les-Mines, Youx, Moureuille, Servant, Pouzol, Neuf-Église, Ayat-sur-Sioule, and Saint-Rémy-de-Blot.

Locations

The Menat Abbey (fr) is an abbey in the village of Menat. It is one of the oldest monastic foundations in Auvergne.

The Pont de Menat (fr) is a medieval bridge connecting Menat to adjacent Saint-Rémy-de-Blot.

Gastronomy

The pâté aux pommes de terre and, the "pain des Combrailles" are specialties of the region.^[3]

Fossils

Menat is the site of a lagerstätte dating to 56 million years ago. Many fossils have been discovered extracted from the shales. A dedicated museum was inaugurated in 1980 and housed in the former abbey castle (now town hall).

Paleocene bird fossils have been discovered in Menat, including Halcyornithidae, Messelasturidae, and relatives of Songziidae.^[4]

References

^ "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 13 September 2022.
^ "Populations légales 2021". The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
^ "The Auvergne". Archived from the original on 2009-01-02. Retrieved 2009-01-13.
^ Mayr, Gerald; Hervet, Sophie; Buffetaut, Eric (2019). "On the diverse and widely ignored Paleocene avifauna of Menat (Puy-de-Dôme, France): new taxonomic records and unusual soft tissue preservation". Geological Magazine. 156 (3): 572–584. doi:10.1017/S0016756818000080. ISSN 0016-7568. S2CID 133878360.