Visit Saumur: our itinerary ideas to discover the city: Current Woman Le MAG

As before in the Fenet district

The fate of this strip of land, between castle and river, changed in 1614. The Oratorians, a Catholic order who came to settle in Saumur to counterbalance Protestantism, then supervised a local pilgrimage. Financed by the kingdoms, they built the royal chapel of Ardilliers, endowed with a huge rotunda, in 1696. Inns and workshops for making piety objects flourish. The building at 35-37 rue Rabelais thus housed a hotel, and that at 85, the home of a merchant. As for the rest of the district, described in 1685 as "the most famous in France for its filth", it has fortunately changed!

In search of hidden monuments

David Berardan / Wikimedia Commons

During its Grand Siècle, Saumur replaced its half-timbered houses with stone buildings. But we can still find some! That of number 7 of the Montée du fort, for example, would have inspired Balzac for the home ofEugenie Grandet. Its neighbor has a turret and a watchtower. Place Saint-Pierre, a few 17th century residences rub shoulders with the church of the same name, the facade of which, built between 1675 and 1693, was added to a building which combines Romanesque and Gothic styles. As for the very bourgeois Maison du Roi (photo), at 33 rue Dacier, it hosted the great figures of the time: Marie de Medici and Louis XIII, then Anne of Austria and the young Louis XVI.

An essential site the castle of the Dukes of Anjou

Marc Mongenet / Wikimedia Commons

It dominates the city with its tall, clear silhouette. Built from the 11th century, this medieval castle experienced many vicissitudes. Abandoned in the 16th century, it regained some of its glory that had passed into the following century thanks to Governor Philippe Duplessis-Mornay who endowed it with new defensive bastions and redesigned its wings to install its apartments there. In 1609, he also installed a gallery of portraits and tapestries. Used as a prison from 1650, the site revived art in 1912, when the site, classified as a historic monument, became a municipal museum. Tapestries still, but also ceramics and collections of the Horse Museum … The castle has once again become the ambassador of local know-how.

Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, the child of the country

Wikimedia Commons

Born in Vexin, this follower of Henri IV owes Saumur his nickname "Pope of the Huguenots". Governor of the city from 1588 to 1621, he imposed a peaceful coexistence between Protestants and Catholics, and founded the theological academy which would make the prestige of the city. Suspended from office by Louis XIII in 1621, he died in disgrace two years later. Saumur still shows his gratitude to him today with a street and a high school named after him.

The return of machicolations

David Berardan / Wikimedia Commons

The Grenetière tower, rue des Païens, served as a grain store, then a prison from 1664. Dressed in machicolations with a trefoil decor, it was stripped of it once the fashion was gone. Before finding them during a restoration campaign!

The horse in heritage

Who says Saumur says art of living, Pays de la Loire requires, but also equestrian art. Know-how inherited from the city's golden age, the 17th century? Its first riding academy was, in any case, opened at that time. The city then established itself as the capital of Protestantism. In the middle of the century, its population reached 13,000 inhabitants. Among them, many families enriched by the printing or the river trade on the Loire, for which are created a college, an academy of theology and an equestrian academy. A momentum stopped by Louis XIV who revokes the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

Article published in the issue Femme Actuelle Jeux Voyages n ° 23 April-May 2017

Read also :

⋙ Visit Touraine: the land of wines and castles

⋙ Tours: 5 regional specialties to discover

⋙ Walk in the Pays de Loire