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Useful links
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Place de la Mairie |
Pont de la Loire |
Chaussade |
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Vieux Château
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Walking towards the Post Office, on the right you will find a gate which gives access to a car park : it is known as Le Vieux Château. It was almost entirely rebuilt in the 13th century : the walls, four round towers, two square towers. In 1640 Richelieu ordered to lower it except for the donjon-porch surmounted by a Gothic arch visible from rue Duguet. In 1860, the castle was partly demolished to build a jail. Nowadays, the building accomodates night estival spectacles.
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Musée Municipal et de la Loire
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Opposite Le Vieux Château, place de la Résistance, a queer building dating back to the 17th century has been turned into a museum. There you can see the beautiful spiral staircase, the small courtyard, a window sculpted in the Renaissance style and a monumental fireplace. This building, called “Corps de Garde”, is part of the former Augustinian monastery. The ground floor is entirely devoted to the Loire river testifying to vanished or rarefied activities : it displays paintings (by E. Messemin and Rameau, from the beginning of the 20th century) objects and model boats that illustrate the river navigation (particularly flourishing in the 18th and 19th centuries). On the first floor, you can admire a collection of modern paintings (representative of the Montparnasse School between 1910 and 1925), pieces of pewterware and earthenware, works by E. Zingg, M. de Vlaminck, H. Manguin, M. Utrillo, R. Dufy.
Tél: 03.86.26.71.02.
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Musée du Facteur et de la Poste - Place de la Résistance
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Created in 1994, this museum displays costumes, pillar boxes, old telephones, gadgets, philatelic souvenirs…that bring back to life moments of our local and national history. Temporary exhibitions on various subjects are sometimes organized there.
Tél: 03.86.28.49.95.
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Eglise Saint-Jacques
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Going up rue L. Paris, then rue Duguet, you will reach a Gothic style church which was originally a collegiate church, known as Saint-Laurent. Outside the church, above the portal, there is a small odd triangular balcony that recalls a pulpit : it was actually used as a place to keep watch over the town. Inside the church, the high altar, the wrought-iron gates (dating from the 18th century), the nave (from the 15th century) are worth seeing.
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Maison des Chapelains
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In the Middle Ages, the whole block of houses (in rue Duguet and rue des Chapelains) belonged to the Chaplains of Saint Jacques who could reach the church through underground galleries. On the corner of these two streets, you will discover La Maison des Chapelains : built in the Renaissance style, it is a former hotel which, with its inner turret, is one of the most picturesque places in the town. It has been converted into a museum.
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Chapelle ND. De Galles
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Cross rue du Général de Gaulle to reach rue Pasteur. On your right, there is a plaque indicating the remains of the chapel which was built during the Hundred Years’ War, on the site of a former chapel built in 873.
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Palais Episcopal – Place Pasteur
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It was rebuilt by Hugues de Noyers in the early 13th century. It was restored in 2000. Today some artistic, cultural and gastronomic events take place in the Salle Palatine. A statue (which has been recently sculpted) portrays a woman holding a piece of parchment which symbolises the very atmosphere of the place.
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Tour Fraicte
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This vestige of the town ramparts can be seen from the corner of rue Cholet and rue Berthelot : it is a low wall protected by a roof.There is no vestige of a tower of the same name, built at the 9th century for the defense of the Loire.
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Palais de Justice – Rue Eugène Pelletan
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Built in 1866 in the Renaissance style, this building shelters the library on the ground floor. In front of Le Palais de Justice (the Law Courts), in the park overlooking the Loire, there is a contemporary sculpture “Le marinier tirant sa barque” that illustrates the life of the river.
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Forges de La Chaussade - Quai Maréchal Joffre
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That former royal factory made anchors for The Navy until 1872 ; it used the hydraulic energy of the Nohain for two centuries and underwent many changes following the evolution of its activity. The most remarkable vestiges of the place (which has recently been developped) are the flumes and what remains of the equipment producing the driving force.What is noteworthy too, is the gate of the main entrance. Nearby, a plaque bears a quotation by Madame de Sévigné (a famous writer from the 17th century) : on the 30th of September 1677, she visited the workshop where the anchors were made and she was much impressed by the particular atmosphere reigning in there. Until 1872 this industrial site perfectly fitted into the Saint Agnan area : the river banks, the house on the corner of rue des Forges (which was formerly a nail factory), the Annonciade area, the low-volume dam on the Nohain .
For your photo album or your video library : “ Le Gros Bouillon” where the Nohain flows into the Loire, the inscription « Forges Royales » and the mark left by two anchors in the stone, an anchor forged in Cosne in 1861, picturesque views of the Nohain, l’Impasse de l’Annonciade and the covered passageway joigning rue Saint Agnan.
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Eglise Saint Agnan
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This church (listed building - 1862) was built in the 12th century at the very place where an oratory (known as Saint Front) had been erected in the 6th century. The apse, the portal and a few pieces of the walls are the last remains of this monument. In 1738, a fire made the Romanesque steeple collapse destroying most of the building which was rebuilt in the 18th century. The present steeple rests on the Romanesque portal and on a nearby mediaeval tower. The interior and exterior of this church has been recently restaured.
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Allée des Marronniers
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It offers an ideal view of the Loire river with the suspension bridge, the beach, « l’Ile » and its campsite, the hills of Sancerre.This path leads you to Port Aubry, a place where you can have a picnic or go fishing. After an imposing metal bridge from the 19th century, turn left up to Le Domaine de Port Aubry : in this farm you will discover and taste some delicious goat cheese (Crottin de Chavignol).
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