Fontenay-le-Comte is a commune in western France, a sub-prefecture of the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region. The municipal territory of Fontenay-le-Comte covers 3,416 hectares. The average altitude of the municipality is 28 meters, with levels fluctuating between 2 and 68 meters. The relief of Fontenay-le-Comte is relatively hilly, except for the Loges district located in an alluvial zone.
The origin of Fontenay-le-Comte is
unknown. The discovery of numerous cut or polished flints shows that
the place was inhabited for a very long time.
The first
settlements on the Fontenay-le-Comte site date from Prehistoric
times and can no doubt be explained by the presence of a ford
allowing the crossing of the Vendée.
A route
running from the south to the northwest crosses where the water is
shallower. This ford, surmounted by a roadway and facilitating the
obligatory passage for the movement of goods and people, imposed the
construction of means of protection. Houses, which were perhaps only
huts, came to adjoin these constructions, thus placing themselves
under their protection in this troubled period. The security of the
place being established, this meeting point served as a stopover and
relay and was suitable for exchanges. The discovery in the
nineteenth century of many debris and coins in Fontenay and the
surrounding area attests to the human presence.
During the
Gallo-Roman period, this city, like all of the current Vendée,
belonged to the city of the Pictons, included in the province of
Gaul in Aquitaine.
A batch of ceramics found at the site of
Genats (locality near toll 8 of the motorway, shared between
Fontenay-le-Comte and Fontaines to the south) is largely dominated
by the sigillata of Montans (Tarn).
A fountain, vital for the
city, gives it its name.
It was not until 841
that the Chronique de Nantes mentioned the existence of Fontenay, a
town in the Poitou region. It is related that Renaud d'Herbauges and
Lambert, Count of Nantes, united their army there to come to the aid
of Charles the Bald against his brother Lothaire. In the Middle
Ages, like other cities, it acquired means of defense: a fortified
castle, solid walls and ditches of which only vestiges remain.
In the tenth century, Fontenay was a meeting place for hunting.
Louis IV of Overseas is received there by the count of Poitou
Guillaume Tête d'Étoupe.
From the twelfth century, the city
is in turn the property of the Counts of Poitou and Mauléon, then of
Geoffroy "La Grand'dent", famous for his atrocities such as the
looting and burning of the abbey of Maillezais. far. He is the son
of Geoffroy de Lusignan and Eustache Chabot, popularized since under
the name of Mélusine, fairy half-woman, half-fish who haunted the
forest of Mervent-Vouvant. The house of Lusignan is a noble poitevin
dynasty originating from Limousin, attested since the tenth century
and which gave rise to the counts of Marche, counts of Angoulême,
kings of Jerusalem then of Cyprus and Armenia. This Geoffroy "La
Grand'dent", embracing the party of the Comte de la Marche against
King Louis IX, forced the latter to come himself to lay siege to
Fontenay which was taken in May 1242.
The city then becomes
the property of Alphonse de Poitiers, brother of the king. It is
since that time that she has been given the nickname of Le Comte. On
the death of this prince on August 21, 1271, the city returned to
the crown, Philippe the Bold, taking possession and going there the
same year.
Fontenay-le-Comte then becomes the capital of
Bas-Poitou.
It experienced significant economic development
from the Middle Ages thanks to the cloth and leather industry. Tried
by the English in 1361, then reconquered 11 years later by the
French led by Bertrand du Guesclin, the city was greatly shaken
during the Hundred Years War. After that, she retains royal
protection well.
In March 1471, Louis XI erected the city as
a commune. The charter granted gives this liberality as a reason:
"that the city is seated in great death and close enough to the sea,
surrounded by good fertile land, that it is old and widely renowned
in the country of Poitou, that it has a chastel ancient, greatly
fortified the past time, by means of which and the scituation of the
said city, there are very large frequentations of the fact of goods
and even of drapery which is done there and works there every day,
which makes that several foreigners and others of the said city make
their refuge and their abode there and even a time of hostility of
war, as well in the said city, which is fortified and largely seized
of walls of fossez, as also its boroughs and suburbs which are
fortified of dump. ". During the Renaissance, its fame was
reinforced by the gathering within its walls of an intellectual
elite whose fame extended beyond the limits of the kingdom, a
dimension such that Francis I gave the city its motto of "Fountain
and springing source of beautiful spirits ”.
The Renaissance was for Fontenay-le-Comte a period of splendor
with the construction of the most beautiful buildings in the city:
the castle of Terre-Neuve, the mansions and the emblem of the city:
the Quatre-Tias fountain. Its fairs of yesteryear were also famous.
Trade there was important and particularly that of horses and mules,
very popular with the Spaniards. Of these fairs, those of April 2
and Saint-Venant have disappeared. Only that of Saint-Jean has found
its extension in the current "Fair Exhibition".
The year 1560
marks the beginning of the spread of Protestantism in the region and
the city is the scene of very hard struggles between Catholics and
Huguenots. In the space of 25 years, Fontenay-le-Comte was taken and
retaken eight times, causing extensive damage to the city. One of
these sieges resulted in the capture of the city by the Duke of
Montpensier in 1575.
Henri III of Navarre, future Henri IV,
is at the head of the Huguenot party. At the beginning of the year
1587, he stayed in Marans, a locality close to twenty kilometers
away. In February, Catherine de Médicis, wishing to meet him,
because in search of an appeasement to these political and religious
quarrels which ruin the country, is in Fontenay. But mistrust reigns
on both camps and the interview cannot take place, neither resigns
itself to surrender at the invitation of the other.
Henri
comes to lay siege in front of Fontenay in May 1587 and seizes the
city, Sully accompanies him.
On December 21, 1608, Richelieu
was there, going to Luçon to take possession of his bishopric. Louis
XIII stayed there for a short time in 1621, when the castle was
dismantled.
The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685
dealt a fatal blow to the city. The flight of many Huguenots caused
him to lose a large part of his trade and particularly that of
draperies. This period is one of the darkest in its history and
marks its decline.
During the 18th century, the old town was
transformed: town planning, creation of wide arteries, canalization
of the Vendée.
The French Revolution marks a turning point
for the city. On January 27, 1790, the National Assembly decides
that Fontenay-le-Comte will be the capital of the Western Department
of Poitou, which will be called Vendée, of which Fontenay-le-Comte
becomes the capital. 1793 does not spare the city. Placed at the
edge of the military Vendée, it suffered all kinds of exactions
following the revolutionary disturbances. The "Whites" seized it on
May 15, 1793, they evacuated it three days later after having freed
many prisoners. There were about 230 executions to which must be
added a large number of prisoners who died from lack of treatment.
It was then that, for a short time, on November 15, 1794, the town
would be called Fontenay-le-Peuple, the Convention wishing to remove
all traces of the Ancien Régime. The city remains republican and
constitutes a point of support of the republicans in the war of
Vendée.
In 1804, Napoleon I, judging Fontenay too eccentric
and wishing to pacify the Vendée, transferred the prefecture of
Fontenay to the new town of Napoleon (La Roche-sur-Yon).
Fontenay-le-Peuple becomes Fontenay-le-Comte again. In 1812, the
town became sub-prefecture of Vendée in place of Montaigu. On August
7, 1808, the Emperor and his wife Joséphine de Beauharnais arrived
in Fontenay, coming from Spain to leave the following day. A
Fontenaisian and general of the Empire, Augustin-Daniel Belliard,
distinguished himself in particular in the various Napoleonic wars.
He was peer of France and ambassador in Brussels under the
Restoration where he took an important part in the agreements which
sealed the independence of Belgium.
The Duchess of Berry will
come to the city on July 11, 1828, then in 1832, to attempt an
uprising against the government of Louis-Philippe I.
From the
second half of the 19th century, the economic recovery which took
place led Fontenay-le-Comte to develop outside its walls. The
railroad finally arrives and the city station will be linked to La
Roche-sur-Yon, Niort, Bressuire and La Rochelle at the beginning of
the twentieth century.
General de Gaulle, President of the
Fifth Republic, visited the city on May 20, 1965.
From 1969,
unprofitable rail lines were closed and passenger service was
transferred to the road. The old passenger building and the station
platform are integrated into the city's new cultural space, called
“René Cassin-La-Gare” and inaugurated on January 22, 2005.