Village of 1,151 hectares located in the west of the department of Charente, on the border of the Charente -Maritime. It is 7 km from Rouillac, 10 km from Jarnac, 20 km and 32 km from Cognac to Angouleme.
The name comes from the Gallic Mareuil " maros " which means " great " and " ialo " meaning " fields, clearing ". The municipality of Mareuil crossed by the RD 75 Sigogne - Couture d'Argenson was in the Middle Ages the site of a manor which passed by marriage in the 17th century Horric of Courade 's family Beaupoil. The village is located on the slope of a hill overlooking the source of the stream from the fountain of Mareuil. The villages in the Courade, du Plessis and Beaulieu are part of the county. Crossing point between East and West, the region is crossed by the Roman road leading to Lugdunum Mediolanum Santonum also the path that forms the southern boundary of the town still bears the name of the Roman road. As neighboring municipalities and Courbillac Plaizac, Mareuil wine... was essentially the first registers of civil status date back to 1658, unfortunately, the collection is complete.
Mareuil has the distinction of having a wind turbine, located in the village center. It houses a fountain that is available to Mareuillais. In October 1893, the project to build a mill to lift the water from the public fountain was born. It will stop working in 1936 due to a storm. It will be completely removed in 1939 but in 2001, a resident of the town revived fountain performing a wind wheel with a pumping system. He donated to the town. Following this first initiative, some volunteers decided to restore it. Over the days, the center of Mareuil embellished until Saturday, July 14 where wind, called " Fountain " is returned to its base, looking for wind and starts to rotate, pumping water wells. Thus the heart of Mareuil could fight again...
The village also has other treasures...
The laundry, located a few meters from the wind with its columns stone and slate roof is in harmony with the architectural ensemble formed by the church, the town hall and instead Philemon Martin. Research on the origin of this building are underway but so far no construction date has been set.
The town hall, restored and furnished, has been established since 1991 in the former rectory. The building rubble country tranche with a canopy on the front where there is a staircase leading to the marriage hall.
The Church of Our Lady of Mareuil, old perpetual vicariate of the diocese of Saintes, dates from the second half of the 12th century. Rebuilt in the 15th century, it was restored in 1900 by its Romanesque portal and first bay of vaults, it is Gothic in the other six bays. The Romanesque nave of three bays, vaulted cribs, opens with a transept covered warheads and flanked by two chapels. A Gothic sanctuary with flat bed, replaced the original apse. The façade, with reinforced large buttresses extending to the sides angles, is topped with a floor pierced by a window above a band adorned with ribbons ovals. Several capitals are decorated with foliage. The rectangular bell tower pierced his two twin bays in the center sides and a slender spire placed on a frame covered with slate.
The Memorial of the deportation of Jews from Mareuil : a sticker on the front of the old Town Hall plaque mentions the 25 Jews arrested Mareuil October 8, 1942, deported to Auschwitz. Each October 8, the town honors the memory of the deportees by a wreath laying.
Courade is a small village with only slippers houses, as if time had stopped. These are large properties tastefully renovated. The village has the distinction of having a street ( vines ) that passes under a porch.