La Charité-sur-Loire
La Charité-sur-Loire is a commune in the Nièvre department and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of eastern France.History
The settlement of La Charité grew up around the Cluniac priory of that name, founded on an island site in the River Loire in 1089.
During the Hundred Years War, the town was liberated from the English by French forces led by Joan of Arc on December 25, 1429.
A great fire ravaged the town in 1559.
In the second of the French Wars of Religion La Charité withstood eight months of siege by Catholic forces. It would later be one of the fortified towns given the status of Huguenot safe havens by the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
By the time of the French Revolution only a dozen monks remained in the priory, which was sold to private individuals and preserved. An improved highway that was to have been driven through the church was deflected by the report of Prosper Mérimée, the first inspector of monuments, who classed it as worth saving in 1840.Population
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