La Charité-sur-Loire

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Coordinates: 47°10′40″N 3°01′11″E / 47.17778, 3.01972

Administration
Commune of La Charité-sur-Loire

Sainte-Croix-Notre-Dame in La Charité-sur-Loire
Location

Country	France
Region	Bourgogne
Department	Nièvre
Arrondissement	Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire
Canton	La Charité-sur-Loire (chief town)
Intercommunality	CC du Pays Charitois
Mayor	Gaëtan Gorce (2008-2014)
Statistics
Elevation	153–215 m
Land area^¹	15.78 km²
Population^² (1999)	5,460
- Density	346/km² (1999)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	58059/ 58400
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) only counted once.

La Charité-sur-Loire is a town and commune of the Nièvre département, in France. Population (1999): 5,720.

1 History
2 Demographics
3 Sights
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

The town began as the first of the Cluniac priories on an island site in the Loire.

A great fire ravaged the town in 1559. In the French Wars of Religion, it was one of the fortified towns granted as Huguenot safe havens by the Peace of Saint-Germain (August 1570). In the Second War the fortified town withstood eight months of siege by Catholic forces.

By the time of the French Revolution only a dozen monks remained in the priory, which was sold to private individuals and preserved. An improved highway that was to be driven through the church was deflected by the report of Prosper Merimée, the first inspector of monuments (and author of Carmen) who classed it as worth saving in 1840.

[edit] Demographics

At the 1999 census, the population was 5,460. On 1 January 2005, the estimate was 5,405.

[edit] Sights

The priory stands as a ruin. The church Sainte-Croix-Notre-Dame was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998, as part of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France.