Sancoins (Municipality, Cher, France)

Last modified: 2005-03-05 by ivan sache
Keywords: cher | sancoins | cross (white) | castles: 2 (white) | fleurs de lys: 2 (yellow) |
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by Arnaud Leroy

• Presentation of Sancoins
  • History of Sancoins
  • The writer Marguerite Audoux
• Municipal flag of Sancoins

See also:

• France
• Cher (Department, France)

Presentation of Sancoins

The municipality of Sancoins (3,600 inhabitants; 5,300 hectares) is located in the center of France, on the borders of the traditional provinces of Berry, Nivernais and Bourbonnais. Sancoins is located on a rectilinear road linking Bourges (50 km north-west) and Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier (17 km south-east), where it joins the main north-south axis N 7. Sancoins is mostly known for its Wednesday's cattle market, the most important in France and probably in Europe.

History of Sancoins

Sancoins is called Tinconium on the Peutinger's Table, a copy of a map of the Roman ways (III-IVth century) published by the humanist Konrad Peutinger (1465-1547) and kept today in Vienna. Peutinger's Table is considered as the oldest reliable map of Europe. The name of the city evolved to Cenconio (c. 1000), Cenquoins, Cenconqs (carved in 1690 on the lid of the baptismal fonds of the ancient church, destroyed in 1860) and eventually Sancoins.
Julius Cesar is said to have gone through Sanc