Fontenay-le-Comte

French commune
nomcommune=Fontenay-le-Comte
région=Pays de la Loire
département=Vendée Sous-préfecture
arrondissement=Fontenay-le-Comte
canton=Fontenay-le-Comte
insee=85092
cp=85200
maire= Hugues Fourage
party= PS
mandat= 2008–2014
intercomm= Communauté de communes du Pays de Fontenay-le-Comte
latitude=46.466
longitude=-0.806065
alt moy=24 m
alt mini=2
alt maxi=68 m
hectares=3,405
km²=34.05
sans=13,792
date-sans=1999
dens=405
date-dens=1999

Fontenay-le-Comte is a town and commune of western France. It is located in the Vendée "département", for which it is the "sous-préfecture", in the Pays de la Loire "région". Population (1999): 13,792.

Geography

The Vendée River flows though the town. The town has an area of 34 km².

History

Fontenay was in existence as early as the time of the Gauls. The affix of comte is said to have been applied to it when it was taken by King Louis IX from the family of Lusignan and given to his brother Alphonse, count of Poitou, under whom it became capital of Bas-Poitou. Ceded to the English by the Treaty of Brétigny, in 1360 it was retaken in 1372 by Duguesclin. It suffered repeated capture during the Religious Wars of the 16th century, was dismantled in 1621 and was occupied both by the Republicans and the Royalist Vendeans during the Revolt in the Vendée (1793). From 1790 to 1806 it was capital of the Vendée department.

Miscellaneous

The town now houses several foreign exchange students each year, notably from Norway and Sweden.

At Maison Laval on rue Rabelais, a townhouse built at the end of the 18th Century, Emperor Napoleon 1st and his wife, Joséphine, spent the night of August 7th and 8th, 1808. On their way from Rochefort to Nantes, they had stopped off in the Bas-Poitou capital of Fontenay-le-Comte where they were the guests of Mayor Laval who, to give them a dignified welcome, had prepared a triumphal arch over the Pont Neuf bridge. That night, the Emperor learned of the defeat of General Dupont at Bailem. The General's surrender, which seriously compromised the French army's position in Spain, threw the Emperor into a deep rage. If word is to be believed, the Emperor smashed an earthenware vase placed in front of him.

Famous people

*François Rabelais (1493-1553) was a monk at Fontenay-le-Comte, where he studied Greek and Latin, as well as science, philology, and law.

Fontenay-le-Comte was the birthplace of:
*Barnabé Brisson (1531-1591), jurist and politician
*François Viète (1540-1603), mathematician
*Mathurin Jacques Brisson (1723-1806), zoologist and natural philosopher.
*Michel Crépeau (1930-1999), politician

ister Cities

*flagicon|Poland Krotoszyn (Wielkopolskie), Poland
*flagicon|Spain Crevillent (Comunidad Valenciana), Spain
*flagicon|United States Palatine (Illinois), United States of America

External links

* [http://www.ville-fontenaylecomte.fr/ Official website of the town]
* [http://www.ngw.nl/int/fra/f/fontenac.htm Heraldry of the town]