Corréjac
Starting point of the plague epidemic in 1720
Corréjac, a hamlet near Auxillac, is famous in a very sad way. It was here that the plague epidemic that struck Gévaudan from 1720 to 1722 began. On November 23, 1720, day laborer Jean Quintin went to the Saint-Clément fair in Saint-Laurent d’Olt. Shortly afterwards, he developed a fever and felt extremely tired. He managed to return home to Corréjac, and died the next day. The entire Quintin family was decimated in the days that followed. The son of the Quintin woman, born of a first marriage, borrowed the coat of his brother-in-law living in La Canourgue to go and bury his mother. He returned it the next day. The families of the two unfortunate men also die a few days later, in Cadoule and La Canourgue, and the plague epidemic is now spreading throughout Gévaudan. Winter then brought the promise of a lull. But alas, with the return of the warm weather, the epidemic reappeared and became increasingly virulent, alarming the local authorities. Doctors from the court were sent to Gévaudan, and their verdict was clear: this was indeed a “pestilential fever”.
A disease that spreads in Gévaudan
Despite attempts to counter the epidemic, the disease soon spread beyond the area of La Canourgue and Corréjac to other places, including the towns of Marvejols and Mende. The situation seemed out of control, and the fear of contagion and death omnipresent. A blockade was set up, preventing the movement of goods and people between Gévaudan and neighboring provinces. Restrictions on movement were imposed on the inhabitants. In Corréjac, the fifty or so inhabitants who had survived were forced by the authorities to live in huts built on the nearby mountain, but the precarious living conditions drove the unfortunate people back to the hamlet. When the authorities learned of this, they gave the order to burn the village houses, which they did on July 1, 1721. The houses marked with an explanatory plaque, showing the drawing opposite, bear witness to this sad story. The drawing depicts a doctor in the costume he wore to protect himself from the epidemic. It consists of a long tunic encircling the head in a hood and a long mask in the shape of a beak filled with aromatic herbs supposed to purify the putrid air.
At the time, Gévaudan was a very poor province, where the wool industry and the cloth trade were very important. Weaving was not done on an industrial scale, as in some regions, but by each family during the harsh winters. As the sheep herd was often too small, wool was imported from abroad, notably from Spain and Smyrna, in present-day Turkey. It is thought that it was the latter that poor Jean Quintin brought back to Corréjac and contaminated the Gévaudan. We now know that the plague is spread by infected rat fleas, which are particularly fond of stoles and fabrics. The fact that this trade was a major source of income for Gévaudan had two perverse effects: on the one hand, it facilitated the spread of the disease, and on the other, when the epidemic was declared, trade was interrupted, weakening the economy of Gévaudan, a region already reputed to be extremely poor.
In the end, the plague died out thanks in part to the adaptation of the population, which became more resistant to the bacillus after long exposure, but also to the measures of the zealous La Devèze, sent by the court. According to historian Louvreleul, the disease caused 5678 deaths in Gévaudan, including 945 out of 1633 inhabitants in La Canourgue and 1800 out of 2746 in Marvejols.
