Personalities linked to the municipality:
Leah said Vedrine Nigremont Georges (1895-1971): Born in La Villeneuve, a student at the Normal School Gueret from 1900 to 1903, she became a teacher. She married Fernand Pelletier in 1910. Inspector of kindergartens in Nancy in 1926 and then in Paris from 1935 to 1945, for his passion as a writer and according to the fashion of the time (cf. George Sand), she borrowed his pseudonym in the village of Saint-Georges-Nigremont where his father, a schoolteacher, was born and where his grandfather had built a house. His most famous novel, published in 1936, Jeantou, Mason Creuse describes the difficult life of peasants Masons Creuse in the early 19th century. He was awarded the Youth in 1937. His other major works: Tales of the Auvergne, Marche and Limousin (Gedalge Books, 1940), Track Eskimo (Delagrave, 1966), A victory at the Olympic Games (Republished Ed. Rowan, 1996), Aubusson, the torn city (1970).
Pierre Eugene Montezin (1874-1946): painter influenced by Claude Monet, Montezin, like other Impressionists, visited La Villeneuve where he painted many works (output, a village in the snow ... in Creuse). A beautiful canvas painted in 1925 representing part of the village of La Villeneuve is the property of the village.
Although recent (creation of the commune by decree of Napoleon III of February 1, 1867), the village of La Villeneuve is rich in built heritage whose origins essentially come from the development of the fur industry in the surrounding area.
Locally called castles, four large bourgeois residences were built in the town, each surrounded by a beautiful park. We can cite the castle known as du Rocher, built in 1908 by Mr. Emile Chapal, which was the subject of numerous postcards, the castles of Aimé Chapal, the Bern family and the Bouchon family. A fifth, of the same origin, located in the village of Saint Bard, at a place called Chazépaud, has everything that was once called "madness".
The Sainte-Radegonde church: It originally comes from a chapel in poor condition that the inhabitants restored in 1826 and to which they added the bell tower. Dedicated to Sainte Radegonde (queen of France, wife of Clotaire I, 519 - 587) and Saint Abdon, the church was built to the plans of the departmental architect Masbrenier in the neo-medieval style, the work having been financed by several subscriptions. It was blessed in 1869. Father Béluze, a missionary behind the creation of the parish, was a friend of the priest of the Saint-Amable collegiate church in Riom. During the restoration of this church, he obtained from it the donation of four magnificent twisted columns and two angel heads, woodwork sculpted in 1687 by André Boysen (Clermont-Ferrand) and Noël Mercier (Gannat) which were re-used to constitute the altarpiece of the Sainte Radegonde church. In the center of it, a painting painted by Emma Boroden in 1865 represents the nativity of the Holy Virgin inspired by Pietro Berrettini known as Peter of Cortona. Ten stained glass windows made by Antoine Champrobert, glass painter from Clermont-Ferrand, offered by several families from La Villeneuve illuminate the choir and the nave. Also note a curious painting representing a Christ on the cross dressed in a "petticoat" and surrounded by a flowerbed. This is a "Christ of earthquakes" such as can be admired in various museums including the Lima Arts Museum (Peru), a protective Christ dating from 1750-1770. The origin of the cult of Earthquake Christ, originating from a statue enshrined in the cathedral of Cusco, Peru, began after the very powerful earthquake in 1650 and remains alive today. To this day we do not know the reason for the presence of this painting in the Sainte-Radegonde church. The church was restored in 2008 thanks to a subscription with the help of the Heritage Foundation (roofs, bell tower, stained glass windows, electricity, heating, woodwork). The visitor can admire the entire choir from the entrance to the church (free lighting).
