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Segré (Municipality, Maine-et-Loire, France)

by Arnaud Leroy

Presentation of Segré
Flag of Segré
Coat of arms of Segré

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Presentation of Segré

The city of Segré (7,155 inhabitants; 1,587 hectares) is located in the westernmost part of Anjou, therefore closed to Brittany. Segré was built around a schistose spur dominating the confluency of the rivers Oudon and Verzée. The region around the city is called Segréen, and is characterized by a bocage landscape (farmland crisscrossed by hedges and trees) dedicated to mixed farming and cattle breeding. The Segréen is also an industrial region, with iron mines and slate quarries.

The Latin name of Segré was Secretum, meaning isolated, secret. The village indeed seems to have remained isolated until the Xth century, when Foulques I le Roux, the founder of the first house of Anjou, built a fort on the schistose spur dominating the village. The fort was a simple wooden tower erected on a stand of earth. In the XIth century, the fiercy count Foulques III Nerra replaced the wooden tower by a big stone donjon. The fort was seized in 1066 by duke of Brittany Conan II. In 1191, the domain of Segré, belonging to Geoffroy de la Guerche, was confiscated by king of England and duke of Normandy Richard Lionheart, who offered it to his wife Berangere of Navarra.

The city of Segré was completely trashed in 1490 by plunderers who scoured upper Anjou. In the XVIth century, during the Religious Wars, the city too