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Saumur |
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| The château at Saumur | |
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Saumur
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Location within Pays de la Loire region
Saumur
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| Administration | |
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| Country | France |
| Region | Pays de la Loire |
| Department | Maine-et-Loire |
| Arrondissement | Saumur |
| Intercommunality | Saumur Loire Développement |
| Mayor | Michel Apchin (2008–2014) |
| Statistics | |
| Elevation | 20–95 m (66–312 ft) (avg. 30 m/98 ft) |
| Land area1 | 66.25 km2 (25.58 sq mi) |
| Population2 | 29,857 (1999) |
| - Density | 451 /km2 (1,170 /sq mi) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 49328/ 49400 |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
| 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once. | |
Saumur is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France.
The historic town is located between the Loire and Thouet rivers, and is surrounded by the vineyards of Saumur itself, Chinon, Bourgueil, Coteaux du Layon, etc. which produce some of France's finest wines.
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Prior to the French Revolution Saumur was the capital of the Sénéchaussée de Saumur, a bailiwick, that existed until 1793. Saumur was then the location of the Battle of Saumur during the Revolt in the Vendée.
During the Battle of France, in World War II, Saumur was the site of the Battle of Saumur (1940) where the town and south bank of the Loire was defended with great honour by the teenage cadets of the cavalry school.
In 1944 it was the target of several Tallboy and Azon bombing targets from Allied planes. The first raid, on 8/9 June 1944,[1] was against a railway tunnel near Saumur, seeing the first use of Tallboy bombs. The hasty night raid was to stop a planned German Panzer Division, travelling to the meeting newly landed allied forces in Normandy. The panzers were expected to use the tunnel. No. 83 Squadron RAF illuminated the area with flares by four Avro Lancasters and marked the target at low level by three de Havilland Mosquitos. 25 Lancasters of No. 617 Squadron RAF then dropped their Tallboys with great accuracy; one pierced the roof of the tunnel, brought down a huge quantity of rock and soil, and blocked the tunnel for a considerable period, badly delaying the Panzer IVs.[2]
On 22 June of the same year, nine B-24 Liberators of the United States Army Air Forces used Azon glide bombs against the Samur[3] Bridge; escort was provided by 41 of 43 P-51 Mustangs. During the morning of 24 June, 74 American B-17 Flying Fortresses were again dispatched to the bridge; 38 hit the primary and 36 hit Tours/La Riche Airfield without loss; escort was provided by 121 of 135 P-51s.[3]
The town of Saumur was awarded the Croix de Guerre with palm for its resistance and display of French patriotism during the war.
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Saumur is home to the Cadre Noir,[6] the École Nationale d'Équitation (National School of Horsemanship), known for its annual horse shows, as well as the Armoured Branch and Cavalry Training School, the officer school for armored forces (tanks). There is a tank museum, the Musée des Blindés, with more than 850 armored vehicles, wheeled or tracked. Most of them are from France, though some come from other countries such as Brazil, Germany, and the Soviet Union, as well as axis and allied vehicles of World War Two.
The School of Saumur is the name used to denote a distinctive form of Reformed theology taught by Moses Amyraut at the University of Saumur in the 17th century. Saumur is also the scene for Balzac's novel Eugénie Grandet, written by the French author in 1833, and the title of a song from hard rock band Trust (whose lyrics express their poor opinion of the city: narrow-minded, bourgeois and militaristic). Amongst the most important monuments of Saumur are the great Château de Saumur itself which stands high above the town, and the nearby Château de Beaulieu which stands just 200 metres from the south bank of the Loire river and which was designed by the architect Jean Drapeau.
The architectural character of the town owes much to the fact that it is constructed almost exclusively of the beautiful, but also fragile Tuffeau stone.[7]
Saumur was the birthplace of:
The French mathematician Abraham de Moivre initially studied logic at Saumur.
Marquis de Sade was briefly imprisoned in the Château de Saumur (then a jail) in 1768
The town is twinned with: