Saintes, Charente-Maritime
Saintes is a commune and historic town in western France, in the Charente-Maritime department of which it is a sub-prefecture, in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Its inhabitants are called Saintaises and Saintais. Saintes is the second-largest city in Charente-Maritime, with inhabitants in 2008. The city's immediate surroundings form the second-most populous metropolitan area in the department, with inhabitants. While a majority of the surrounding landscape consists of fertile, productive fields, a significant minority of the region remains forested; its natural state.
In Roman times, Saintes was known as Mediolanum Santonum, and during much of its history, the name of the city was spelled Xaintes and Xainctes.
Primarily built on the left bank of the Charente, Saintes became the first Roman capital of Aquitaine, and later, the capital of the province of Saintonge under the Ancien Régime. Following the French Revolution it briefly became the prefecture of the department during the territorial reorganization of 1790, until La Rochelle took its place in 1810. Even though it was but a subprefecture, Saintes was allowed to remain the judicial center of the department. In the late 19th century, Saintes was chosen as the seat of the VIIIth arrondissement of the Chemins de Fer de l'État, railways, which enabled an era of economic and demographic growth.
Today, Saintes remains the economic heart of the center of the department and it is an important transportation hub. A few major industrial business operate. The city's commerce and service sector is large with the headquarters of Coop Atlantique, administrative functions of state, courts, legal services, banks, schools and a hospital. Beyond this, property maintenance, retail and tourism sectors provide large numbers of jobs.
Because of its noteworthy Gallo-Roman, medieval and classical heritage, Saintes is a tourist destination and a member of the French Towns and Lands of Art and History since 1990. It has several museums, a theater, cinemas, and organizes numerous festivals. A European center of musical research and practice is in its Abbaye aux Dames.
Geography
Location
Saintes is on the banks of the Charente River, in the center-eastern part of the department. The city is centred 60 km southeast of La Rochelle, 33 kilometers northeast of Royan and about 100 km north of Bordeaux.Geology
A chronostratigraphic stage of sedimentary rock has been named after the former name for inhabitants, the Santones, the Santonian. Saintes is built on its eponymous subset of mainly limestone that consists of particular flint nodules of quartz geodes and nodules of iron. Ancient stone quarries in its 'Colline de la Capitole' and Bellevue, partially filled or converted to permit fungiculture, are evidence for Santonian stone's use in the construction of various buildings, where unimproved quite vulnerable to frost.Nearer to the river, the Cretaceous plateau gives way to more or less recent alluvial grasslands composed of bri, a type of clay.
The uplifting of Alps and Pyrenees began during the Maastrichtian, 65 Ma ago, and continued for a part of the Paleogene.
Districts
The town is divided into 14 administrative areas : Les Boiffiers, Les Tourneurs, L'Ormeau de Pied, Recouvrance, La Fenêtre, Saint-Rémy, Saint-Vivien, Saint-Eutrope, Saint-Pierre, Saint-Pallais, Saint-Sébastien de Bouard, La Récluse, Le Maine-Saint-Sorlin and Bellevue.Left bank (''Rive gauche'')
The neighborhood of Saint-Pierre lies between the hill of the Capitole and the river Charente. It possesses a significant number of historic monuments justifying its forming of the core of a conservation area that spans over. Built around the cathedral Saint-Pierre, the place du marché and the place du Synode, it is crossed by pedestrian alleys around which can be found numerous medieval, renaissance and classic buildings.Almost immediately west lies the neighbourhood of Saint-Eutrope, that has developed over the centuries around a rocky elevation bounded by two small valleys at right angles to the river. Dominated by the Saint-Eutrope basilica, it also contains the remains of a Clunian priory and several hillside houses. Little valleys lead to the vallon des Arènes below, where a Roman amphiteatre survives, in a park named "Parc des Arènes".
The cours Reverseaux and cours des Apôtres de la liberté separate Saint-Eutrope in the west from the faubourg Berthonnière. These partly separate the hill of the Capitole to the north. Once outside-of-the-walls, the faubourg included some hostelries and inns for pilgrims. The streets of the faubourg converge toward the place Saint-Louis, the place de l'Aubarrée and the place Blair, dominated by a column of Liberty erected during the Revolution. The square Goulebenéze stands between the place Blair and the river.
The neighbourhoods of les Boiffiers and Bellevue are separated from the rest of the city by the avenue de Saintonge; they consist mainly in low-rent housing and suburban housing standing on a plateau bounded by the Charente. Bellevue has inhabitants and spans ; it is listed as a zone urbaine sensible.
La Recouvrance, in a triangle formed by the cours du maréchal Leclerc, the cours Genet and the rocade ouest, contains a lycée, the former seminary, the Yvon Chevalier stadium and a shopping mall. The water tower of Recouvrance is decorated with frescoes by contemporary artist Michel Genty.
The north of the urban area, the Saint-Vivien neighborhood has an old faubourg inhabited since antiquity where the thermes de Saint-Saloine, ancient Roman baths are found.
Right bank (''Rive droite'')
The neighborhood of Saint-Pallais was probably urbanized in antiquity. Structured around the main access way of the Roman city, it was then linked to the town center by a bridge with a monumental entrance, the Arch of Germanicus. During the Middle Ages, a funeral basilica, dedicated to the bishop Palladius, was established, then a Benedictine abbey of women amongst the largest in the region, the Abbaye aux Dames de Saintes. The presence of this monumental heritage led to the integration of part of the neighborhood in a conservation area. It was during the 19th century that the neighborhood began to develop. The antique bridge was destroyed and replaced in 1879 by the pont Bernard-Palissy, a few meters upstream ; the avenue Gambetta and the place Bassompierre are created ; the train station, the Gare de Saintes, the prison, the Haras national de Saintes, the parc Pierre-Mendès France, the Jardin public Fernand Chapsal and the protected area of the prairie de la Palu were subsequently created.Adjacent communes
Transportation
Roads
Saintes is a transportation hub of some importance, connected by two motorways and several secondary roads, national and departmental, that converge towards the rocade that bypasses the city on its western and southern sides.The A10 autoroute, operated locally by Autoroutes du Sud de la France, passes through the commune in its western part, in a north-south axis. It can be accessed by the interchange 35. By the A10, Saintes is 125 km from Bordeaux, 140 km from Poitiers, 470 km from Paris.
The A837 autoroute is a spur road of the A10 linking the area to Rochefort, the third city in the department.
Saintes is on the Route Centre-Europe Atlantique, an expressway that links it to Limoges and Lyon in the east – its dualled western section Saintes-Saujon opened to traffic in 2008 making the two 25 minutes apart by car. An extension towards Royan on the coast completed in the following decade.
The rocade is formed in its western part by the national road 137, that meets two key roads, the departmental road 728 and the departmental road 150 that intersects near the locality of Diconche. In its southern part, the rocade integrates the national road 141, that runs east towards Cognac, Angoulême and Limoges. The departmental road 150, at the end of the east part, runs towards Niort by Saint-Hilaire-de-Villefranche et Saint-Jean-d'Angély. The town center of Saintes is bypassed by the avenue de Saintonge or departmental road 24, that crosses the Charente with the bridge de Saintonge, opened in 1969.
Train
The Gare de Saintes is at the focal point of five railways that link the agglomeration to Nantes, Bordeaux, Angoulême, Niort and Royan ; the trains are mainly part of the regional rail network TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine and the network Intercités.In 1894, the station was the starting point of a 3 km long network of tramways that was stopped in 1934. In 1894 was also founded a secondary railway 42 km long linking Saintes to Mortagne-sur-Gironde, by Gémozac, then a somewhat important economic center ; however, this railway was dismantled in 1947.
The importance of this railway network is explained by the designation of Saintes as the seat of the Compagnie des chemins de fer des Charentes in 1867, then as the regional seat of the VIIIth arrondissement of the Chemins de fer de l'État from 1911 to 1971. The SNCF is still a major employer in the city, and new depots and workshops have been opened in 2009 and 2010.
Population
Colors=
id:lightgrey value:gray
id:darkgrey value:gray
id:sfondo value:rgb
id:barra value:rgb
ImageSize = width:800 height:350
PlotArea = left:50 bottom:30 top:30 right:50
DateFormat = x.y
Period =from:0 till:30000
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:5000 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:1000 start:0
BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo
BarData=
bar:1791
bar:1792
bar:1793
bar:1794
bar:1795
bar:1796
bar:1797
bar:1798
bar:1799
bar:1800 text:1800
bar:1801
bar:1802
bar:1803
bar:1804
bar:1805
bar:1806
bar:1807
bar:1808
bar:1809
bar:1810
bar:1811
bar:1812
bar:1813
bar:1814
bar:1815
bar:1816
bar:1817
bar:1818
bar:1819
bar:1820 text:1820
bar:1821
bar:1822
bar:1823
bar:1824
bar:1825
bar:1826
bar:1827
bar:1828
bar:1829
bar:1830
bar:1831
bar:1832
bar:1833
bar:1834
bar:1835
bar:1836
bar:1837
bar:1838
bar:1839
bar:1840 text:1840
bar:1841
bar:1842
bar:1843
bar:1844
bar:1845
bar:1846
bar:1847
bar:1848
bar:1849
bar:1850
bar:1851
bar:1852
bar:1853
bar:1854
bar:1855
bar:1856
bar:1857
bar:1858
bar:1859
bar:1860 text:1860
bar:1861
bar:1862
bar:1863
bar:1864
bar:1865
bar:1866
bar:1867
bar:1868
bar:1869
bar:1870
bar:1871
bar:1872
bar:1873
bar:1874
bar:1875
bar:1876
bar:1877
bar:1878
bar:1879
bar:1880 text:1880
bar:1881
bar:1882
bar:1883
bar:1884
bar:1885
bar:1886
bar:1887
bar:1888
bar:1889
bar:1890
bar:1891
bar:1892
bar:1893
bar:1894
bar:1895
bar:1896
bar:1897
bar:1898
bar:1899
bar:1900 text:1900
bar:1901
bar:1902
bar:1903
bar:1904
bar:1905
bar:1906
bar:1907
bar:1908
bar:1909
bar:1910
bar:1911
bar:1912
bar:1913
bar:1914
bar:1915
bar:1916
bar:1917
bar:1918
bar:1919
bar:1920 text:1920
bar:1921
bar:1922
bar:1923
bar:1924
bar:1925
bar:1926
bar:1927
bar:1928
bar:1929
bar:1930
bar:1931
bar:1932
bar:1933
bar:1934
bar:1935
bar:1936
bar:1937
bar:1938
bar:1939
bar:1940 text:1940
bar:1941
bar:1942
bar:1943
bar:1944
bar:1945
bar:1946
bar:1947
bar:1948
bar:1949
bar:1950
bar:1951
bar:1952
bar:1953
bar:1954
bar:1955
bar:1956
bar:1957
bar:1958
bar:1959
bar:1960 text:1960
bar:1961
bar:1962
bar:1963
bar:1964
bar:1965
bar:1966
bar:1967
bar:1968
bar:1969
bar:1970
bar:1971
bar:1972
bar:1973
bar:1974
bar:1975
bar:1976
bar:1977
bar:1978
bar:1979
bar:1980 text:1980
bar:1981
bar:1982
bar:1983
bar:1984
bar:1985
bar:1986
bar:1987
bar:1988
bar:1989
bar:1990
bar:1991
bar:1992
bar:1993
bar:1994
bar:1995
bar:1996
bar:1997
bar:1998
bar:1999
bar:2000 text:2000
bar:2001
bar:2002
bar:2003
bar:2004
bar:2005
bar:2007
PlotData=
color:barra width:10 align:left
bar:1793 from:0 till: 8388
bar:1800 from:0 till: 10050
bar:1806 from:0 till: 10300
bar:1821 from:0 till: 10274
bar:1831 from:0 till: 10437
bar:1836 from:0 till: 9559
bar:1841 from:0 till: 9994
bar:1846 from:0 till: 11363
bar:1851 from:0 till: 11569
bar:1856 from:0 till: 11927
bar:1861 from:0 till: 10962
bar:1866 from:0 till: 11570
bar:1872 from:0 till: 12437
bar:1876 from:0 till: 13725
bar:1881 from:0 till: 15763
bar:1886 from:0 till: 17327
bar:1891 from:0 till: 18461
bar:1896 from:0 till: 20285
bar:1901 from:0 till: 18219
bar:1906 from:0 till: 19025
bar:1911 from:0 till: 20802
bar:1921 from:0 till:19152
bar:1926 from:0 till:20468
bar:1931 from:0 till:20592
bar:1936 from:0 till:21160
bar:1946 from:0 till: 23441
bar:1954 from:0 till:23768
bar:1962 from:0 till:25717
bar:1968 from:0 till:26507
bar:1975 from:0 till:26891
bar:1982 from:0 till:25471
bar:1990 from:0 till:25874
bar:1999 from:0 till:25595
bar:2007 from:0 till:26401
TextData=
fontsize:S pos:
text:source Cassini and INSEE
Landmarks
- The Arch of Germanicus, a triumphal arch, was built at the entrance to a bridge, where the main Roman road crossed the Charente River. The bridge was demolished in 1843 but the Arch was saved by Prosper Mérimée and rebuilt at its present location on the bank of the river.
- Ruins of the Roman amphitheatre on the main, left bank of the Charente, near the summit of the hill upon which the town was built. Its notable tiers are built against the hill and an embankment.
- Some remnants of the thermae of Saint-Saloine are also visible, in particular an aqueduct.
- Fragments of the 3rd century rampart can be seen in the Place des Récollets. It was built with stones taken from the Roman buildings.
- Ecclesiastical
- *The Abbaye-aux-Dames. Madame de Montespan was educated here.
- *Other churches: the Basilique Saint-Eutrope and the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre, Saintes Cathedral: Basilique Saint-Eutrope: ,
- Museums
- * the Musée archéologique, which has a restored Roman cart/wagon of the 1st century amongst a collection of sculptures and inscriptions.
- * the Musée du Présidial, which has a mannerist architecture and a collection of regional ceramics and paintings of the 15th to 18th century.
- the Musée de l'Échevinage, which exhibits porcelain of Sèvres and paintings of the 19th and 20th century
Hospital
Education
Saintes is in the catchment of and under the auspices of the académie de Poitiers.;Public kindergartens and elementary schools
| ;Public collèges
;Public professional lycées ;Private professional lycée ;Military school ;Business School ;Higher education
Twin towns – sister citiesSaintes is twinned with:
|