Pontorson

Pontorson is a common French, located in the department of the Manche and the area Basse-Normandie.

It is the chief town of a canton of 10 communes and: 6617 inhabitants, in the district of Avranches.

Geography

Pontorson is located at 9 km of the Mount Saint-Michel, 22 km of Avranches and 45 of Granville.

Located in the middle of the bay of the Mount Saint Michel, Pontorson is a city crossed by Couesnon (one of the three rivers of bay of the Mount Saint-Michel)

Pontorson “is framed” by the Couesnon and more than 10 km of zone of marsh towards the south and by more: 4800 hectares of polders.

Pontorson and its canton benefit from a moderate oceanic climate and are protected by bay from the Mount Saint Michel.

History

The city was founded with on a wish of William the Conqueror. Important fortified town with the doors of Brittany, the fortress of Pontorson was " rasée" in 1623 on order of Louis XIII. Some vestiges remain of this time like the Church Notre Dame de Pontorson, the Guischard Hotel of Ménardière or the old Hotel God " St Antoine of Charity " of Pontorson.

In 1973, the common one amalgamated with Ardevon, Beauvoir, Boucey, Cormeray, Curey, Moidrey and the Steps, which kept the statute of common partners. Beauvoir took again its independence in 1989. Located at 9 km of the Mount-Saint-Michel, Pontorson is in the middle of bay of the Mount-Saint-Michel, on the edges of the Couesnon, in the middle of the futures great work which will give again in the Mount-Saint-Michel his insularity.

Administration

Demography

Places and monuments

Notre-Dame church (): wish of William the Conqueror, it was built by the companions who built the Mount Saint-Michel. Romance and of Gothic transition from, it is essential in its environment by its massive aspect and its flanked porch of two Romance turrets on the varied sculptures.

Old protesting temple () or old barn with Dîmes: rare witness of an important page of the history of Normandy, the temple of Pontorson is the only building protesting of the English Channel, former to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

Guischard house of Ménardière (known as Romance House) (): this residence, called Romance Maison was probably built with. Modified with, it will keep its aspect of a large house on which, it is possible to read the inscription of the Guischard family in 1719.

The Residence of the counts de Montgomery (today a restoring Hotel): this Hotel was formerly the residence of the counts de Montgomery, of which most famous, Gabriel I {{er}} (1530-1574) mortally wounded Henri II of France at the time of a tournament. The painted parquet floors, ceilings, the woodworks and the large staircase are as many works going back to this time.

Old stations of Pontorson, illustrating the important life of the train, and the old line going of Glazed with Moidrey then with the Mount Saint-Michel. The line passing with Pontorson was open in 1873.

The Mill of Moidrey, going back to 1806, and entirely remade in the years 2000, produces its flour today.

Celebrities

Of Guesclin
Gabriel de Lorges, count de Montgomery accidentally killed, at the time of a tournament, Henri II of France. He flees with Jersey where he converts with the Protestantisme and becomes a great figure of the Réforme into Low-Normandie.Tournoi between Gabriel de Montgommery and Henry II of France

Extract of the “Shelf of kings de France” by Mr. Dreux of the Foundation raft, in Paris in 1781, Volume second “Henri, who wanted to veil the ignominie of the treaty of Câteau - Cambresis, by splendor of the festivals and the magnificence of the weddings of his/her daughter Elisabeth de France, with Philippe II King d' Espagne and that of his/her sister daisy of France with Emmanuel - Philibert, Duc of Savoye, ordered a Solemnel Tournament against all venans. Its majesty, the Duke of Ferrare, the Duke of Own way, and M of Nemours were the tenans. The King, one of the best riders of his kingdom, made admire his address and his value. But towards the end of the tournament, wanting, he says, to still break a lance with the honor of the ladies, others say of the Queen his wife, it sent one of them to the young person Gabriel de Montgommery. The Queen, unnecessarily begged it to leave the tournaments: Montgommery refused to enter in string as much as it could it, and until a express order that it accepted some from the King. They ran finally one against the other, and so harshly that the lances broke and that Montgommery, carried by its horse, gave in the right eye of the King, which had the raised visor of its helmet, of the section which remained to him the hand; account which I draw from Andre Favin… The blow penetrated so front, that the cranium was inserted by it. The King staggered and also early carried with the palate of the Small towers (today the Royal Place), close which the combat had been held. One unnecessarily exhausted all that the surgery has of art and industry. It was formed a abscès in the head of the King, who died it twelfth day, which was on July 10th, 1559… It ordered that one completed the marriage of his sister with the Duke of savoye, and declared that it forgave in Montgommery…”

Victor Louis Cuguen (1889-1969), painter born in Pontorson (street Herve). Member of the academy of the VAr, it exposed in many galleries of the area of Toulon, in Normandy and Brittany.
Emile Lemarié of Landelles, painter of the 19th century, born in Pontorson, raises of Gérome and of Lawn, one finds it in the area of Bridge-Swallow-hole and Concarneau of 1875 to 1878. It will die out in 1903 with St Jean the Thomas.
Auguste Chapdelaine (1814-1856), Christian martyr, was vicar with Boucey
Leon Teisserenc de Bort (1855-1913), directed from 1879 to 1892 the Meteorology service then developed its research on the upper atmosphere. He discovered in 1898 Stratosphere after having launched 236 balloons probes at altitudes going from 8 to 12 km.

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