Parthenay
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Commune of Parthenay |
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| Location | |
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| Administration | |
|---|---|
| Country | France |
| Region | Poitou-Charentes |
| Department | Deux-Sèvres |
| Arrondissement | Parthenay |
| Canton | Parthenay |
| Intercommunality | Parthenay |
| Mayor | Argenton Xavier |
| Statistics | |
| Elevation | 114m–184m |
| Land area¹ | 11.38 km² |
| Population² (1999) |
10,466 |
| - Density | 920/km² (1999) |
| Miscellaneous | |
| INSEE/Postal code | 79202/ 79200 |
| 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. | |
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Parthenay is an ancient fortified town and commune in the Poitou-Charentes région of France, sited on a rocky spur that is surrounded on three sides by the River Thouet. It is situated some 40km north of Niort, 50km west of Poitiers, 120km south-east of Nantes, and 350km south-west of Paris.[1]
Parthenay is in the département of Deux-Sèvres. It is the sous-préfecture of the arrondissement of Parthenay, and the chef-lieu of the canton of Parthenay. The commune of Parthenay has joined together with five neighbouring communes to establish the communauté de communes of Parthenay which provides a framework within which local tasks are carried out together.[2][3]
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[edit] History
Legend has it that Parthenay was created with a wave of the fairy Melusine's wand. However the name of Parthenay first appears in written records at the beginning of the 11th century and there is no evidence of previous significant human occupation in the Middle Ages.[1][4]
Economically, Parthenay benefited by being on one of the branches of the Way of St. James, the mediaeval pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostella in Spain. The main fortified gate, by which pilgrims would enter the town, still bears the name of Saint Jacques (the French name for Saint James).[1][4]
A thousand years ago, the Lords of Parthenay chose an easily defended site. The loop of the River Thouet with its rocky outcrop were occupied then fortified as early as the 11th century. A mighty castle, which no doubt had a solid keep, was built in the 12th century.
These lords built convents and churches too: they made many gifts of land and gave what were considerable sums of money at the time to the church. Thus were built or rebuilt the Houses of God. The best preserved monument is to be found on the outskirts of the present-day town, on the Niort road. There can be seen the remains of the Priory of St. Pierre – most of the walls and some of the buildings with their richly carved ornamentation are visible.
[edit] Sights
In the town remain part of the walls of the church of St. Jean: the ossuary is incorporated in the ramparts which overlook the Boulevard de la Meilleraye today, and towered over an impressive defensive system of moats in the Middle Ages. It is impossible to forget the famous carved façade of Notre Dame de la Couldre, the church of Parthenay's archipriest, or Sainte Croix: the Church of the Holy Cross which, with its bell tower added at a later date, dominates the Citadel. There is too, the town centre church of Saint Laurent which was originally surrounded by a cemetery. It too has been built and rebuilt several times.
In the 13th century, between 1202 and 1227, the town was shielded by a solid network of walls and moats. The lords of Parthenay received a considerable sum of gold from their overlord The English King to help them to defend themselves against the forces of the French King. The town was completely fortified. Four great gates were built or consolidated. The Saint Jacques Gate, which takes its name from the pilgrims on their way to SantIago de Compostela in Spain, is the best example. The Castle was completely rebuilt. All that remains today of this structure are the Harcourt Tower and the massive Poudrière Tower. During the restoration of the castle since 1986, archaeologists have uncovered many objects that can be seen in the town museum.
There are no houses left standing from that time as in order to build more quickly and thus more cheaply, houses were constructed with wooden frames, a sort of wall of beams with the gaps filled with earth and straw or later on with bricks. These buildings were nowhere near as solid as the great walls of castles and churches built with lime and sand. Their particular weakness was that they burned easily when the town was under attack or being pillaged by enemy forces.
The town also had a convent of the Cordeliers: the Middle Ages were the times of priests and monks: in every town in western Europe brother preachers spread the word of the Gospels, inviting the townspeople to attend Mass and to perform an act of penance before the great Christian Feasts of Christmas and Easter. The order of the Cordeliers described the monsters and torments of hell on the one hand to frighten sinners, and on the other , to encourage good acts they taught about Saint Francis and his miracles. In those times there were great religious feasts and youth festivals. It was a time when the bourgeois, the middle classes, left goods and income to the church in their wills in return for hundreds or thousands of memorial masses.
Medieval tradesmen and craftsmen in Parthenay
The tanners with their workshops in St Paul's quarter were specialists who cleaned and tanned hides. The weavers and their looms in Saint Jacques worked with thread and wool which was brought in from the whole region. The merchant drapers and merchant butchers were all thriving, and there were a few goldsmiths and money changers who worked with gold and silver. The wealthier they were, the closer they moved towards the Citadel and the main street leading to the church of Saint Laurent. When the Lords of Parthenay left to join the King's court at the end of the Middle Ages, the trade in luxury goods ceased, but the thriving trade in cloth and hides kept the town wealthy. The streets and alleyways bustled not just with people but with flocks and herds brought in for the Wednesday cattle, meat and dairy markets and feast days. On the Place des Bancs and in the surrounding streets in the heart of the town, peasant women dressed in rustic hessian sold what they had produced on their small holdings and let themselves be tempted by the peddlers' wares. Their menfolk, after negotiating the sale of their livestock in the great feudal market hall beside the Citadel gate, closed the deal over a jug of dry or sour wine.
[edit] Transport
Parthenay is located on the Route nationale 149 (RN149), which runs roughly east-west from Nantes to Poitiers, and which forms part of the European route E62 from Nantes to Genoa. The RN149 is a conventional highway, and has to a certain extent been by-passed by a combination of the autoroutes A83 and A10 that passes some 25km to the south of Parthenay. Other major roads link Parthenay to Niort, Saumur, St Maixent L'Ecole and La Roche-sur-Yon. Through traffic can avoid passing through the old town by using a by-pass road that encircles the town at a distance of about 2km.[5]
Parthenay is on the SNCF rail system, with lines to Niort, Poitiers and Thouars. However these lines now only carry freight trains, and passenger trains no longer serve Parthenay railway station. Instead the station is served by a long distance bus service from Nantes to Poitier that forms part of the SNCF's TER Poitou-Charentes network. The département of Deux-Sèvres also provides an inter-urban bus service that connects Parthenay to Niort, Bressuire, Thouars and other local towns and villages.[5][6][7]
The nearest airports are at Poitiers (Poitiers - Biard Airport) and Nantes (Nantes Atlantique Airport).
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c (October 2007) French Atlantic Coast. Michelin Apa Publications Ltd. ISBN 978-1-906261-17-7.
- ^ Code Officiel Géographique. Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques. Retrieved on 2008-05-31.
- ^ Les Communes. Communauté de communes de Parthenay. Retrieved on 2008-05-31.
- ^ a b Parthenay. Wikipedia France (2008-05-23). Retrieved on 2008-06-02.
- ^ a b Carte de Promenade - 33 - Cholet Niort. Institut Geographique National.
- ^ Ter-sncf.com - Poitou Charentes - Carte et Horaires. SNCF. Retrieved on 2008-05-04.
- ^ Plan-RDS. Conseil général des Deux-Sèvres (2008). Retrieved on 2008-06-04.
[edit] External links
- Web site of the communauté de communes (in French)
- Basic information on Parthenay (in English)
- Parthenay on the web site of the Institut Géographique National (in French)
