Sarthe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sarthe
Department
Prefecture building of the Sarthe department, in Le Mans

Coat of arms
Location of Sarthe in France
Coordinates: 48°17′N 0°13′E / 48.283°N 0.217°E / 48.283; 0.217Coordinates: 48°17′N 0°13′E / 48.283°N 0.217°E / 48.283; 0.217
Country France
Region Pays de la Loire
Prefecture Le Mans
Subprefectures La Flèche
Mamers
Government
 • President of the General Council Roland du Luart
Area1
 • Total 6,206 km2 (2,396 sq mi)
Population (2007)
 • Total 556,946
 • Rank 47th
 • Density 90/km2 (230/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Department number 72
Arrondissements 3
Cantons 40
Communes 375
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2
The Château de Boisclaireau, residence of the Gueroust family, Counts of Boisclaireau, in Sarthe.

Sarthe (French pronunciation: ​[saʁt]) is a French department, named after the Sarthe River.

History

The department was created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790, pursuant to the law of 22 December 1789, starting from a part of the province of Maine which was divided into two departments, Sarthe to the east and Mayenne to the west.[1]

In Roman Times, this province contained the city of Mans, and many of its ruins are still left standing. The Thermal Bathhouse attracts many tourists, as does the Theater of Aubigné-Racan, both located on the outskirts of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine.

Marin Mersenne, perhaps the most important scientific figure in the early 1600s, was born in the vicinity of Sarthe.

Geography

The department of Sarthe is at the north end of the administrative region of Pays-de-la-Loire. This places it south of Basse-Normandie and on the south edge of the Armorican Massif. It is bordered by the departments of Orne, Eure-et-Loir, Loir-et-Cher, Indre-et-Loire, Maine-et-Loire and Mayenne.

Approximately 300,000 people, comprising more than half of the department's population, live in Le Mans, its conurbation or the essentially urban communes close by. The rest of the department retains its rural character, however, being dominated economically by agriculture.

The economy, especially in the Le Mans area, received a boost with the arrival of the railways in 1854 and of a TGV connection in 1989. In terms of road connections the A11 autoroute, which reached Le Mans from the east in 1978, also highlights Sarthe's strategic position as the gateway to the French west.


Tourism


Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

See also

References

  1. ↑ The Sarthe region

External links

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Sarthe.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.