La Charité-sur-Loire, known simply as La Charité until 1961, is a riverside commune in the western part of the French department of
Nièvre
Nièvre () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, central-east France. Named after the river Nièvre, it had a population of 204,452 in 2019.INSEE commune file /ref> It is located on the departmental border with
Cher
Cher ( ; born Cheryl Sarkisian, May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Goddess of Pop", she is known for her Androgyny, androgynous contralto voice, Music an ...
, which is also the regional border with
Centre-Val de Loire
Centre-Val de Loire (; ,In isolation, ''Centre'' is pronounced . ) or Centre Region (, ), as it was known until 2015, is one of the eighteen Regions of France, administrative regions of France. It straddles the middle Loire Valley in the interior ...
.
Geography
La Charité-sur-Loire lies on the right, eastern bank of the river
Loire
The Loire ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône.
It rises in the so ...
, about 25 km northwest of
Nevers
Nevers ( , ; , later ''Nevirnum'' and ''Nebirnum'') is a city and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Nièvre Departments of France, department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in central France. It was the pr ...
. La Charité station has rail connections to Nevers, Cosne-sur-Loire and Paris. The A77 autoroute (Montargis–Nevers) passes east of the town.
History
The settlement of La Charité grew up around the Cluniac priory of that name, founded near the river Loire in the 11th century, and consecrated in 1107.
During the Hundred Years War, the town was liberated from the English by French forces only in 1435.
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc ( ; ; – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the Coronation of the French monarch, coronation of Charles VII o ...
tried to liberate the city in 1429 but failed.
A great fire ravaged the town in 1559, leaving the nave of Sainte-Croix-Notre-Dame in a ruinous state for many years. The nave was finally restored by the late 17th century, albeit with its length diminished and the stone of the original facade repurposed in the reconstruction works.
In the second of the
French Wars of Religion
The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...
(1567–8), La Charité withstood eight months of siege by Catholic forces. It would later be one of the fortified towns given the status of
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...
safe havens by the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (August 1570).
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 (and author of '' Carmen''), who classed it as worth saving in 1840.
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
Communes of the Nièvre department
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...