Saint-Thibault-sur-Loire (often named Saint-Thibault) is a village of the Cher département, in central

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It is a former port on 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 ...

in the former province of Berry. It is

faubourg "Faubourg" () is an ancient French term historically equivalent to "fore-town" (now often termed suburb or ). The earliest form is , derived from Latin , 'out of', and Vulgar Latin (originally Germanic) , 'town' or 'fortress'. Traditionally, t ...

of the commune Saint-Satur.

History

Located in the area of

Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

settled by the powerful

Celt The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

ic tribe, the Bituriges, or the "Kings of the World", and after their defeat at

Bourges Bourges ( ; ; ''Borges'' in Berrichon) is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre (Cher), Yèvre. It is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Cher (department), Cher, and also was the capital city of the former provin ...

(Avaricum), part of

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

Aquitania Gallia Aquitania (, ), also known as Aquitaine or Aquitaine Gaul, was a province of the Roman Empire. It lies in present-day southwest France and the comarca of Val d'Aran in northeast Spain, where it gives its name to the modern region of Aquit ...

. Some evidence points to the existence of an early Roman river town of Gordona (Castle-Gordon), now Saint-Thibault and Saint-Satur; located on the

Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

(Gordaine) from Bourges to the Roman bridge over the Loire river in Saint-Thibault. Area transportation was improved by the construction of a suspension bridge at Saint-Thibault (1834), the

Canal latéral à la Loire The Canal latéral à la Loire (, "canal parallel to the Loire") was constructed between 1827 and 1838 to connect the Canal de Briare at Briare and the Canal du Centre (France), Canal du Centre at Digoin, a distance of . It replaced the use of th ...

(1838) and later, the Bourges -

Sancerre Sancerre () is a medieval hilltop town and commune in the department of Cher, Centre-Val de Loire, France, overlooking the river Loire. It is a member of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (The Most Beautiful Villages of France) Association, no ...

Cosne-sur-Loire Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire () is a commune and a subprefecture of the Nièvre department in central France. It was created in 1973 by the merger of two former communes: Cosne-sur-Loire and Cours.World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Saint-Satur was a regional command center for the

French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

. "Operation Spencer" in 1944 was to prevent the Germans from crossing the Loire River between

Gien Gien () is a Communes of France, commune in the Loiret Departments of France, department in north-central France. Gien is on the river Loire, from Orléans. Gien station has rail connections to Montargis, Nevers and Paris. The town was bought ...

and

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 ...

and reinforcing troops in

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

. The French Resistance and

Free French Forces __NOTOC__ The French Liberation Army ( ; AFL) was the reunified French Army that arose from the merging of the Armée d'Afrique with the prior Free French Forces (; FFL) during World War II. The military force of Free France, it participated ...

blew up the bridge at Saint-Thibault and sabotaged communication, road and railway lines.

References

Geography of Cher (department) {{Cher-geo-stub