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

Last modified: 2004-07-17 by ivan sache
Keywords: maine-et-loire | saumur |
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by Arnaud Leroy

• Presentation of Saumur
• Description of the flag of Saumur
• Coat of arms of Saumur
• Flag of Saumur without the coat of arms

See also:

• France
• Maine-et-Loire (Department, France)

Presentation of Saumur

Saumur is a city of c. 35,000 inhabitants, sous-préfecture of the departement of Maine-et-Loire, located on the confluency of the rivers Thouet and Loire.

The first settlement in Saumur was built around a fortified monastery founded by king of France Charlesle Chauve (823-877) to shelter the relics of the local evangelist St. Florent (IVth century). The monastery was trashed during the Norman invasions. In the XIth century, Saumur was strongly disputed by the counts of Blois and Anjou, until king of France Philippe-Auguste (1165-1223) seized the city in 1203. The castle was destroyed and rebuilt several times. It was totally rebuilt by Louis I, first duke of Anjou, at the end of the XIVth century.

At the end of the XVIth century and during the XVIIth century, Saumur became one of the most brilliant Protestant cities in France. King of France Henri III (1551-1589) offered the city as a place de sûreté [safety place] to king Henri of Navarra, later king of France as Henri IV (1553-1610). Henri of Navarra appointed as Governor of the city Philippe de Mornay, a.k.a. Duplessis-Mornay (1549-1623) and nicknamed by the Roman Catholics "the Huguenot Pope", who founded in Saumur the first Protestant Academy in 1599. After the assassination of Henri IV, a general assembly of the Protestant churches gath