Sarzeau

Sarzeau is a common French, located in the department of the Morbihan and the area Brittany. Its Breton name is Sarzhav, marked.

Its inhabitants is called Sarzeautins. (living: the Sarzeautines )

Geography

Physical geography

The commune of Sarzeau represents half of the surface of the peninsula of Rhuys, of which it constitutes the chief town of canton.

Its territory, of massive and overall rectangular form, is limited to the West by the commune of St Gildas, to the East by those of St Armel and of the Turn-of-park. Bordered by two littorals, this territory enjoys a privileged situation.

The coast of the Gulf of Morbihan, in North, is located on a granitic ground where the sediments are by accumulated places; Very cut out, it alternates small sandy splits (bay of Scluze, splits of Logeo…), some rock points (Point of the Bear, Ruault, Bernon…), of the rather wide mudholes (Handle of Poul, bay of St Dovecote…) and some islands (Govéan, Stibiden, Brannec, Godec, island with eggs…). This unit, with the shelter of the Atlantic swells, constitutes an ideal medium for the flora: the wood of leafy trees (Kerhouët-St Maur, Beausoleil, Kerbodec…)and grid of the woodlands (ormeaux, ferns…), on a more fertile ground, are preserved better there than on the Southern littoral. Fauna also finds there a refuge peaceful and rich in marine plants (reeds, salicorne, graminaceous…); since a score of years, an ornithological reserve covering all bay of St Dovecote protects from interesting species (ducks and barnacles, limicolous, brushes…).

The Atlantic coast presents an extremely different face: of Grée St Jacques in Banastère, one witnesses a succession of sandy beaches (Grée, Kerfontaine, Roaliguen, Suscinio, Landrezac, Penvins and Banastère), separated by rock points (point of St-Jacques, Poent Hir, Beg-Lan, In Iniz, Becudo) of which the height remains modest. The grounds, in schistous majority, less better resisted the furies of the ocean, which explains the erosion marked in certain points (the vault of St Jacques, located with the point of the same name, crumbled gradually at sea during the XIXe century and was rebuilt in Trévenaste); the rocks visible with broad of Kerfontaine (Roh Naben and Beniguet) were accessible to foot at last century. The majority of these beaches (those which constructions did not oblige to drain) preserve to them palus (=marais with the reverse of the dune) as in Sodrio, Suscinio, Hayo or Bécudo. Autrfois exploited like saltworks, they are today the sanctuary of a fauna and a flora rich person. The grounds, more ungrateful than on the Gulf, were used primarily as pastures; wood, rarer, more often consist of conifers, while the scrap-metal meets only starting from the first " côteaux" , in withdrawal of the coast.

Human geography

Sarzeau is a tourist city located at 22 kilometers in the south of Valves, on the peninsula of Rhuys.Sa surface is of 6000 hectares, its density of approximately 110 inhabitants to the square kilometer. This important surface explains its organization in " partly; trêves" (division of the parish in subsets, directed by a deacon holding its offices in a vault specific to the truce, the center-borough being too distant for the inhabitants from the peripheral villages). If the religious practice is less strong than under the Old Mode or at the XIXè century, these truces continue to exist in the unconscious collective and the daily relations; they are seven:

Saint-Saturnin (the borough), heart of the parish,
Saint-Maur (villages of Brillac, Logeo, Kerassel…),
Saint Martin's day (villages of Ruault, Saint Martin's day, Fournevay…),
Saint-Dovecote (villages of St Dovecote, Kerhouët, Kerentrec' H…)
Saint-Démètre (villages of Penvins, Grée, Banastère…)
Saint Nicolas's Day (villages of Kerguet, Suscinio, Bodérin…)
Saint-Jacob (villages of Kerfontaine, Trévenaste, Kerignard, of Roaliguen…)

When Sarzeau became a commune during the Revolution, its territory included/understood moreover the truces of Saint-Armel and Saint-Clearly (Turn-of - park), who obtained their independence during the XIXè century; Brillac and Penvins also tried to make secession, but in vain. Today, in addition to the opposition persisting between " people of Golfe" ( aod bihan = small coast) and " people of the océan" ( aod braz = large coast), the various groups of villages often preserve their own organization, with their city hall annex (Brillac and Penvins), their school (formerly Kerignard and Penvins, today still St Dovecote and Brillac), their occasional religious celebrations (Our-lady of the coast in Grée-Penvins, St-Jacques vault in Trévenaste…), even their own parish (granted to Brillac in 1926), their trade (St Jacques, Brillac), their own festivals (festival of the sea with St-Jacques, moulds - part with Brillac, medieval festivals of Suscinio…) and their polling station. Tourism tends to make thinner this traditional organization, just like it contributed to make less sensitive (or less visible) socio-professional specificities of these groups of villages: while Sarzeau-borough monopolized the trade and the public office, St Jacques and Logeo was especially made up families of sailors, whereas St Dovecote, Penvins and Kerguet remained rural.

The canton of Sarzeau constitutes the Southern limit of the part Breton nante of the diocese of Valves (= Bro Gwened). The practice of Breton declined with the length of the XXè century, and this, in several stages: initially with Arzon, St Gildas-of-Rhuys and the borough of Sarzeau (years 1900-1930), then on banks of the Gulf (inter-war period), and finally on the South-eastern littoral (years 1940-1970). Today, Penvins, Banastère and Suscinio are the last villages of the peninsula where one still finds some rare elderly to practice the language of their ancestors. This retreat of Breton, earlier than in the cantons of the interior of Vannetais, is explained by several factors: the replacement systematic of this language to the profit of French in the administration, the prohibition of Breton at the school (end XIXè century), the faster acculturation of the sailors to the new language, the perception gradually accepted by the Breton-speaking ones that the language of Paris incarnated the modernity and the vagueness of tourism as from 1950. Nevertheless, the existence of a bilingual school die with Sarzeau since the years 1990, watch attachment of part of the population to its identity and its culture, perhaps forecasting a revival of the practice of Breton in the canton.

History

Blasonnement

The common door: party, with the first of azure to the three flowers of gold lily, to the second of hermines, the chief of mouths to the vessel of money equipped and flame with very the .

Currency

has fluctibus Opes which would mean the richness comes from the sea

Administration

Demography

Places and monuments

the Château of Suscinio is the monument impossible to circumvent of Sarzeau.

Built in the South of the Peninsula of Rhuys, between ground and marsh and in the vicinity immediate of the ocean, the castle of Suscinio was with the Moyen-âge, one of the preferred residences of the Ducs of Brittany and their Court. Built mainly in XIIIe century, during the reign of Jean Ier, the Château was before a a whole residence of pleasures, the Dukes of Brittany liked to come to drive out in the large forest which surrounded it.

Strengthened thereafter, restored several times, this massive monument has known important work of restoration for more than thirty years. In 1995, the roofs of the Western Home and New Tower, destroyed with the French revolution, are the subject of a meticulous restitution.

the Menhir of Kermaillard is the most important site megalithic of Sarzeau. But one also finds Dolmen S in Brillac (er Roch), Kergillet (Lannek er Men) and another large laid down menhir with Largueven.
Saint-Saturnin Church - In the vicinity, Abbey of Saint-Gildas-with-Rhuys (XIe S.)
Castle of Kerlévénan XVIIe S. and landscaped garden.
the Ornithological Reserve of Duer, located at the entry of Sarzeau, it is delimited by the Secondary Road 780.
Rohaliguen, beach on the ocean located at the south of Sarzeau

Personalities related to the commune

Alain-Rene Lesage (1668-1747) there lived. He wrote: Turcaret, lame Devil, Gil Blas de Santillane
Marie the Franc: end of the 19th century. She wrote: Fishing of Morbihan
Adrien Regent: He wrote: the gulf of Morbihan and the river of Auray
Xavier de Langlais, painter, illustrator
Quinio, born in Kerblay in the middle of the XVIIIè century, he became an active revolutionist, near to the Jacobins.

See too

Common of Morbihan

External bonds

Tourist office
Sarzeau on the site of the national geographical Institute
Sarzeau on the site of INSEE
Sarzeau on the site of Quid
Localization of Sarzeau on a chart of France and communes bordering
Plane on Sarzeau on Mapquest
Infobretagne Sarzeau: History, Inheritance, Nobility
Penvins kite Festival of kite on the point of Penvins, commune of Sarzeau

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