The municipalities of the Pays Viennois

 

Two wider trunks provide the link with Villette de Vienne and Vienne. They were opened by the Sévenne valley, which changes direction abruptly when it hits the crystallophyllian rocks of the very first abutments of the Massif Central. This east/west transition giving a north-south trace no doubt led to the name change whereby the Sévenne valley becomes the Leveau valley.  

Although the municipality of Chuzelles was created recently (1875), the name 'Chuzelles' is much older. It appeared for the first time in its Latin form, villa caucilla, in a deed of sale dated 845. This name could be a reference to the nickname of Chaucius, given to a Roman general who defeated the Germanic Chauques tribe.
We know that, as of 845, certain hamlets of Chuzelles (Thiers, Saint-Maxime, Saint-Maurice, etc.) were the seat of a variety of agricultural activities. These rural properties could have had precedents in Gallo-Roman times.

From the 14th century, the succession of families which were the local lords is known. Amongst them are some of the great names of history from the dauphin period, such as the Maubec family, and even some great names from French history, with a very furtive, and perhaps very lucrative, appearance of Diane de Poitiers and one of the Paris brothers, the great purveyor of funds to royalty.  In the 17th and 18th centuries, both parishes of Chuzelles were typical of ancien régime communities which were hard-hit by taxes. In addition to the taille (royal tax) and occasionally the capitation (poll tax), the community was made to pay a variety of contributions, each of which was a one-off, but there were so many different ones that the demands were very frequent. It had to pay for the many "passages of the troops" in the Dauphiné, the damage caused by the flooding of the Drac, and the construction of fortifications for Grenoble.

Above all, the history of Chuzelles is that of a village winning its independence and its unity. The religious history of the municipality reveals the main stages of this path to emancipation. The final stage was reached in 1875, with the decree that founded the municipality. The decree certainly created the municipality, but not a centre.