Saumur

For the wine, see Saumur (wine). For the Canadian Supreme Court decision, see Saumur v. The City of Quebec.

Saumur

Coat of arms

Saumur

Location within Pays de la Loire region

Saumur

Coordinates: 47°15′36″N 0°04′37″W / 47.260000°N 0.0769°WCoordinates: 47°15′36″N 0°04′37″W / 47.260000°N 0.0769°W

Country

Saumur Loire Développement

Government

• Mayor (2008–2014)

Michel Apchin

Area¹

66.25 km² (25.58 sq mi)

Population (1999)²

29,857

• Density

450/km² (1,200/sq mi)

INSEE/Postal code

49328 / 49400

Elevation

20–95 m (66–312 ft)
(avg. 30 m or 98 ft)

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.

City coat of arms from 1699 to 1985

City coat of arms since 1986

Saumur (French pronunciation: [so.myʁ]) 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.

History

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.

The Saumur City Hall

The Cessart bridge

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 by the teenage cadets of the cavalry school.

In 1944 it was the target of several Tallboy and Azon bombing raids by Allied planes. The first raid, on 8/9 June 1944,^[1] was against a railway tunnel near Saumur, seeing the first use of the 12,000 lb Tallboy "earthquake" bombs. The hastily organized night raid was to stop a planned German Panzer Division, travelling to engage the 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. They hit the bridge, blocked the railway cutting and one pierced the roof of the tunnel, bringing down a huge quantity of rock and soil which blocked the tunnel, badly delaying the German reinforcements.^[2]^[3]

On 22 June of the same year, nine Consolidated B-24 Liberators of the United States Army Air Forces used Azon 1,000 lb glide bombs against the Samur^[4] Bridge; escorted by 43 North American P-51 Mustangs. During the morning of 24 June, 74 American Boeing 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.^[4]

The town of Saumur was awarded the Croix de Guerre with palm for its resistance and display of French patriotism during the war.

Demographics

Date of Population
(Source: Cassini^[5] et INSEE^[6])

1793	1800	1806	1820	1821	1831	1836	1841	1846	1851
12 300	9 585	9 984	-	10 454	10 652	12 020	12 258	12 566	14 119

1856	1861	1866	1872	1876	1881	1886	1891	1896
14 505	14 079	13 663	12 552	13 822	14 186	14 187	14 867	16 440

1901	1906	1911	1921	1926	1931	1936	1946	1954
16 233	16 392	16 198	15 956	16 210	16 532	17 158	17 635	18 169

1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2004	2007	-
20 773	21 551	32 515	32 149	30 131	29 857	-	28 113	-
For the census of 1962 to 1999 the official population corresponds with the population without duplicates according to the INSEE.

Main sights

Saumur is home to the Cadre Noir,^[7] 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. A giant sequoia tree (which is protected) stands in the grounds of Château de Beaulieu.

The architectural character of the town owes much to the fact that it is constructed almost exclusively of the beautiful, but fragile, Tuffeau stone.^[8]