Saint-Vallier (; ) is a commune in the

Drôme Drôme (; Occitan: ''Droma''; Arpitan: ''Drôma'') is the southernmost department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. Named after the river Drôme, it had a population of 516,762 as of 2019.

department in southeastern

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 an administrative, commercial and industrial town at the confluence of the rivers Galaure and Rhone.

Geography

The town is situated on the banks of the Rhone, north of Valence. The

Galaure The Galaure () is a long river in the Isère and Drôme departments in southeastern France. Its source is in Roybon. It flows generally west-southwest. It is a left tributary of the Rhône, into which it flows at Saint-Vallier. Departments an ...

flows northwest through the southern part of the commune, crosses the town, then flows into the Rhone, which forms the commune's western border. The town covers an area of and has just over four thousand inhabitants. It is the county town of the canton and is important as an administrative, industrial and commercial centre. It has developed in a linear fashion along the bank of the Rhone and has a catchment area of about fifteen thousand inhabitants. It has a number of factories and industrial units making aviation parts, ceramic insulators, nuclear taps, tiles and stationery.

History

Ancient Rome

The Roman town of Ursuli was built on this site at the confluence of the Galaure and the Rhone.

Middle Ages

The Château de

Diane de Poitiers Diane de Poitiers (9 January 1500 – 25 April 1566) was a French noblewoman and courtier who wielded much power and influence as King Henry II of France, Henry II's Maîtresse-en-titre, royal mistress and adviser until his death. Her position inc ...

was built in the fifteenth century. It is flanked by corner towers that dominate the Galaure River. The château is surrounded by a landscaped garden designed by Le Nôtre. Château des Rioux is another ancient castle beside the three hectare Parc à l'Anglaise. It originally housed a religious community of monks but was rebuilt in the nineteenth century by Comte Dupeyroux de Salmagne. It offers accommodation in a gite and four guest chambers. The old city walls are still visible on the Place Orsolles and there is a covered market, built in 1852.

Modern

In the eighteenth century, feldspar and kaolin were found in the area and an industry grew up making

hard-paste porcelain Hard-paste porcelain, sometimes called "true porcelain", is a ceramic material that was originally made from a compound of the feldspathic rock petuntse and kaolin fired at a very high temperature, usually around 1400 °C. It was first made ...

fired at a high temperature. On August 16, 1944, 28 American B17s tried to destroy the railroad bridge, causing many deaths and damage to the south of the town. More information on the history and the "Montrebut" paleontological site of Saint-Vallier is available in a dedicated room near the local council building.

Population

Fossil site

Near Saint-Vallier, on the "Montrebut" hill, there is a

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

bed that serves as a biostratigraphical reference locality. Flowing water has buried the remains of animals over many millennia and careful excavations can help paleontologists understand the relative ages of different rock strata according to the different fossil remains found. This is one of only two locations in which fossils of the extinct badger species '' Meles thorali'' have been found.

Personalities

Saint-Vallier is the birthplace of

, one of the most well-known of French royal mistresses, born in 1499. She became the favourite of

Henry II of France Henry II (; 31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559) was List of French monarchs#House of Valois-Angoulême (1515–1589), King of France from 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I of France, Francis I and Claude of France, Claude, Du ...

and wielded much power until he was fatally wounded in 1559 in a

jousting Jousting is a medieval and renaissance martial game or hastilude between two combatants either on horse or on foot. The joust became an iconic characteristic of the knight in Romantic medievalism. The term is derived from Old French , ultim ...

tournament and his widow,

Catherine de' Medici Catherine de' Medici (, ; , ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Italian Republic of Florence, Florentine noblewoman of the Medici family and Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to Henry II of France, King Henry II. Sh ...

, expelled her from the court.

Main sights

Castles

* Castle of

/ of Chabrillan (), with garden designed by

André Le Nôtre André Le Nôtre (; 12 March 1613 – 15 September 1700), originally rendered as André Le Nostre, was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France. He was the landscape architect who designed Gardens ...

. * Castle of Rioux Image:Château de Saint-Vallier (Drôme) - 1809.jpg, View of the town and castle in 1809, from a painting of C.L. Panckoucke

Downtown

* The city walls * Old town houses, some of which date from the Middle Ages * The hall, rebuilt in 1852 * The Saint-Valéry church () Image:St Vallier remparts.JPG, City walls on the place Orsolles Image:St Vallier place de la pompe.JPG, Place of the pump Image:St Vallier église.JPG, Church Saint-Valéry

Others

Image:Saint-Vallier - gare.jpg, The train station

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saintvallier Communes of Drôme