Eurre, in the past a long time, was called Urre, this name indicating all at the same time the village, the castle, and the name of the families of the lords who remained there. Urre would have been synonymous with burned ground, this pointing out the many cruel invasions which followed one another in the area during nearly 500 years after the Roman decline, of 410: Vandals, Alains, Goths, then Lombards (towards 535), Buckwheats, Moors of Spain (towards 730), Hungarian in 924, then again Buckwheats, in 1018, very often left on their passage only burned ruins and grounds… In old local language, one says “this corn is urri” when it matured prematurely and was burned by the sun.

Roman period

Romans, everywhere where they had settled, established roads to make there circulate their carriages and move their armies. In Eurre, they found a place sufficiently high: abundant water and good station of monitoring for the area and the road way which they had just brought into service. This way directly connected the Alps to the Roman road which placed the Rhone towards Vienna and Lugdunum: one named it Via Magna, the Main road. In Eurre a Roman camp, kept by an important garrison was established, which bore the names of Horea and Villa Vocator. One finds of them vestiges in the low part of the castle of today. In 58 before Jesus-Christ, Jules César crosses the Genèvre Mount then goes to Luc where it joined his lieutenant Labénius who had gone to Valence by the valley of Isere. It is him which had made build the way between Valence and the Alps: this road, precisely, passed by Eurre…

1347: battle of Urre

July 25th, 1347, the pope Clément VI charges the bishops with Uzes and Lisbon to reconcile Aymar of Poitiers, Count de Valentinois, and the bishop of Valence, Pierre de Chatelus. A battle takes place at Crest, then the episcopal troops are folded up then on the plate of Eurre, near, where the reinforcements of the Count de Poitiers join them: one regrets then more than two hundreds died at the episcopal ones, and number of them are made prisoners by the soldiers of the Count de Valentinois. About 1350, Eurre is with the apogee of its power: the solid ramparts ensured to him an unquestionable safety, made necessary by the multiple facts of armed robbery which touch the area.

1525: consequences of the battle of Pavia

A certain number of lords from the Dauphine had followed François Ier to fight at his sides in Italy: the battle of Pavia cost the life Antoine d' Urre, Rostaing and Guy de Vesc. After this disaster, the Dauphine one had to pay the ransom of King François Ier and that of the prisoners of war of the province.

1575-1576: catch and resumption of Eurre

After the defeat of the Protestants vis-a-vis the Armies of the King with the La Rochelle, they take refuge in Drome and more particularly at Crest, 5km of Eurre. The city is strengthened. It is the time of the Wars of religion. In this year the 1575 Protestants give the attack to the village which goes without fighting. At the end of the same year, the Catholics take again the village with the Protestants.

July 4th, 1575 takes place the battle of Blacons: she opposes them Catholiques, represented by the Armies of the King, ordered by Gordes, governor of Dauphine, assisted by her son-in-law and lieutenant Rostaing d' Urre, lord of Ourches, and by Jean d' Urre and of Tool. Protestant, carried out them by the Baron Of Puy Montbrun (successor of the baron of the Adrets) and by its lieutenant Connétable of Lesdiguières; they are assisted by Glane de Cugie and of Urre and by the Lord of Vercoiran and Urre.

The family of Urre then knows thus important internal competitions. In February 1576, the commander of the Protestants Aime de Glane de Cugie and of Urre (heir to Giraud d' Urre) takes again the village with the Catholics. March 6th, 1576, the Edict of Chastenay grants to Réformés the free exercise of their worship in all the kingdom; but Eurre will remain with the hands of the Protestants until 1582, date on which, following its recovery by the armies of the king, which remained fortifications of is seen condemned to dismantling. The external ramparts which surrounded the village are thus cut down by the royal armies between 1582 to 1586. There remain only some fragments today about it. The stronghold will be alienated in 1593 in favor of the lords of Eurre.

Eurre today

Eurre shows its dynamism found with a life agricultural, artisanal and commercial active: the grocer-coffee-multi-services reopened, the school accommodates 95 children and of many activities of leisures are proposed to the inhabitants and to the tourists. Several artists and craftsmen of art chose Eurre to live and work.

Historical source: http://www.visseaux.org/eurre.htm