Saint-Bonnet-the-Castle

Saint-Bonnet-the-Castle , capital of the community of communes of the Country of Saint-Bonnet-the-Castle, is a common French, located in the department of the the Loire and the area the Rhone-Alps. The inhabitants are of Sanbonitains (called before Excrement-Merlots).

Geography

Located at the doors of Auvergne, the south-west of the department of the Loire and near the departments of the Haute-Loire and the Puy-de-Dôme, to eight hundred and fifty meters of altitude, the commune of Saint-Bonnet-the-Castle extends its hundred soixante-treize hectares of surface in a pastoral zone offering an alternation of forests of conifers and pastures green. It is established with the top of a rock headland of the southern point of the Mounts of the Forez from where one can enjoy an exceptional panorama which go from the plain of Drill in north with the Solid mass of the Pilat and in the Alps in the east.

History

The country of Saint-Bonnet was inhabited as of the Neolithic time. Followed one another there Celtes, the Romains and the Francs.

The site was christianized at the first centuries of our era. Until 722, the Gallo-Roman agglomeration was called Castrum Vari , date on which stopped in the city the funeral procession bringing back of Lyon to Clermont-Ferrand the relics of Saint-Bonnet , former bishop auvergnat. The city then took it as “godfather” and became Saint-Bonnet-the-Manor house.

With the the Middle Ages and the Rebirth, the small town makes important industrial great strides. Tanners, tisserands and especially workers of iron are legion there. Robert of Saint-Bonnet, lord of the city, octroit in city in 1223 a Charter of privileges which attracts many inhabitants. The craftsmen manufacture coats of mail, knives, files and other tools and, as of XIVe century, of the locks, the keys, the grids with reinflated holes, etc During the War One hundred Year old, the walls which defend the city against the relaxed English and the brigands are built. There remain about it the doors of the double enclosure of the South with the oratory and the statue of the Virgin who is, since the epidemics of Black Death of XIVe century, the protective one of the city.

In 1562, the baron of the Adrets, protesting chief, seizes the city. It ransacks the church, burns the files, plunders of them, fire and massacre. In the church, a vault contains about thirty skeletons preserving a wrinkled pulpit stuck to the osseous frame with, that and there, an end of fine fabric letting suppose that they could be noble. Science particularly allots this conservation to the composition of the ground which contains certain favorable elements, of alum and arsenic. At the time of their discovery, in 1837, the population, of instinct, gave them the name of “mummies”.

At the XVIIIe century, smuggler Mandrin celebrates it passed to Saint-Bonnet. An old door points out its passage. The Révolution of 1789 prevails here like everywhere in France. At the end of the First Empire, the Austrians occupied the city. At the XIXe century, the city, remained five centuries centers important iron work, knows a new take-off while turning to arms manufacture. Industries thrive thanks to the arrival of the railroad in 1873.

At the XXe century, the workers of iron maintain their long tradition and invent and exploit the swell to play steel (the Obut ball). Moreover, there are always industries working for the car and of clothing.

Administration

Demography

Places and monuments

the Collégiale of Saint-Bonnet is mentioned as of 1225 however the collegial current one was built starting from the May 8th, 1400, date engraved in the Crypte. The collegial one comprises several vaults, an old convent and a big room. She is especially known for her murals of the 15th century and for her library containing of many incunables. She comprises moreover the richest collection of old religious ornaments of the department. She is moreover known to shelter “mummies”. If the majority of its caveaux were violated and plundered with the French revolution, one found during repairs in 1837 in that of the last vault, forty skeletons preserved thanks to alum and at the arsenic of the ground. One knows which is these bodies neither why they are there, nor even since when they are there. They could be victims of the baron of the Adrets who prevails in the area in 1562.

In the city, it remains many vestiges of the medieval time and rebirth, and certain districts have the same aspect as at the 17th century.

Economy

Saint-Bonnet-the-Castle is known as being the world capital of the ball of Pétanque. They is indeed there that two manufacturing planies are installed, providing the major part of the French production. The city shelters also a museum of the boules ball .

other activities developed in the country of St Bonnet the Castle since the Fifties namely: medical furniture (workshops of the HT Drill), furniture for communities (Etbs Souvignet), hunting weapons (Chapuis-arm… and Pierre Artisan), furnishing fabrics (Stof), the maintenance products (the Lady of the manor), staircases (S.B.M), industrial joineries (Chataing), electronics (Atomelec), the electric sheet-iron works (Atoplast), upholstered fabrics (Chestnut).

Events

Personalities related to the commune

See too

Common of the Loire

External bonds

Official site
general Sites on the communes:

Saint-Bonnet-the-Castle on the site of the national geographical Institute
Saint-Bonnet-the-Castle on the site of INSEE
Saint-Bonnet-the-Castle on the site of Quid
Localization of Saint-Bonnet-the-Castle on a chart of France and communes bordering
Plane on Saint-Bonnet-the-Castle on Mapquest

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