I am back into my best mode, road warrior! I am looking to find new areas not visited or hardly passing by for a more in depth look, and I am thrill to share it with the world! I came to La Guerche de Bretagne. The town is located in the department 35 of Ille-et-Vilaine in my lovely Bretagne region, It is located 25 km from Rennes, and 22 km from Vitré, and 171 km from my house. Therefore, on this new trip, let me give some nice spots with my curiosities of La Guerche de Bretagne ! Hope you enjoy the post as I.
At the beginning of the 8C, the Franks established a vast network of fortified sites at the limits of their territory. They would have created border works to protect themselves from the Bretons. They called these sites werki, a word from which La Guerche is said to be derived.
Other things to see which the first one the whole street was blocked for renovations so could not get in, will need to make it in another trip but this sounds interesting me think, The priory of Saint-Nicolas de La Guerche-de-Bretagne is a monastery of Benedictine religious founded in the 11C by Sylvestre de La Guerche, decommissioned during the French revolution and partially destroyed. All that remains in the 21C is a main building on a private estate. It must have been around 30 meters long. It was destroyed in 1556, and the chancel with its right apse was partially rebuilt in the 16C. The priory has Romanesque remains: the north arm of the transept and a pointed arch bay in the chancel. The nave and its bell tower were destroyed in 1750, and it no longer has either a frame or a roof. The entrance gate surmounted by a bay, the bedside and stones engraved with chevrons are still visible.
Acquired in 2017, the city has begun serious renovation and beautification work and is dedicating the place to cultural activities and their dissemination to as many people as possible. The former 19C chapelle de La Providence will house a digital museum coupled with a virtual reality space. The project has been presented and awaiting approval and conclusion. Micro-madness is a modular cultural platform that revolves around a digital museum This digital museum currently brings together a total of 2,500 works, with cultural, fun and technological content, enriched each year with new collections.
Located in the heart of the city in the old market halls, the La Salorge Media Library provides you with a diverse collection of more than 15,000 documents: books, magazines, comics but also CDs, DVDs and books you have read. There is something for all tastes and all ages. The former market or Halles occupied the current Place du Général-de-Gaulle. See old houses, rue d’Anjou. In an enclosed part of the old large halles, called the “Salorge”. This is how the old city/town hall was renamed when the cultural center was installed there at the end of the 20C.
Its castle, a simple wooden keep in the 10C, replaced in the 15C by a solid stone construction, was unfortunately demolished in 1739. The main square Promenade du Grand Mail has preserved its porches and half-timbered residences, testimony to the commercial prosperity of the 16-17C. .It still takes place there, and has been since 1121, one of the largest markets in France, every Tuesday. See , also a wonderful old wooden house, the Hunault house 17C at 2-4 rue de Nantes, and 3-4 rue du Cheval-Blanc, porch of three bays. One of them has a wrought iron balcony b, 16C ,At No 2 is the current City/Town Hall.
A bit of history I like : Mainguené was the first lord of La Guerche in the 11C ; he is close to Duke Alain III of Brittany. This grants his vassal one of his strongholds. After obtaining his new estate, Mainguené built the first “castle” of La Guerche, built 2 km north of the old church of Rannée. In 1121, the lord of La Guerche was William I. He married Emma de Pouancé around 1130. The lordship of La Guerche was thus definitively linked to those of Pouancé and Martigné, straddling Brittany and Anjou. In 1173, Henri II Plantagenêt burned the castle of La Guerche to punish Geoffrey I de la Guerche for having participated in a revolt against his authority. La Guerche became the possession of Bertrand Du Guesclin in 1379, and fell into the French camp. A garrison of a hundred men-at-arms and knights was then stationed in the city. When the constable died (1380), his brother Olivier Du Guesclin inherited the lordship and sold it in 1390 to Duke John IV of Brittany. La Guerche returns to its place in the border defense line. In 1396, John IV gave the lordship as a dowry to his daughter Marie when she married John I of Alençon, killed at the Battle of Azincourt in 1415. In 1443, La Guerche was taken by the English after a siege of the city, which is no longer defended except by its nobility. The castle no longer has any defensive value. The attackers burn the collegiate archives. An important commandery of the Order of the Temple is cited in an act of 1245 The Templars established themselves in the parish of Rannée, at the gates of the town of La Guerche In the 14C, after the fall of the Templars, were succeeded by the Hospitaliers of the Order of the Temple. the order of Saint John of Jerusalem which created a large commandery composed of the Temple of the Guerche and the Saint-Jean hospital. A small 19C castle is now located near the site of this commandery, of which some vestiges remain (private domain, route de Laval).
In 1472, Louis Charles VIII, son of Louis XI, also besieged La Guerche during the wars of Succession in Brittany. In 1526, the Château de La Guerche no longer existed as such. In 1739, the remains of the castle were demolished and used to build the Auditoire the following year. Headquarters of the city’s community, it is attached to the south side of Les Halles (which occupied the current Place du Général-de-Gaulle). At the beginning of the 19C, the city’s market halls, which covered almost the entirety of the current Place du Général-de-Gaulle, were almost completely razed. In 1839, on part of their site, a town hall was built (currently the Salorge cultural center). In 1870, the hospital welcomed the first nun of the congregation of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. In 1890, the name of the town of La Guerche was changed to: La Guerche-de-Bretagne
The town of La Guerche de Bretagne on its heritage : https://www.laguerchedebretagne.fr/spip.php?article110
The Brittany region tourist office on La Guerche de Bretagne : https://www.brittanytourism.com/offers/a-la-decouverte-du-patrimoine-la-guerche-de-bretagne-la-guerche-de-bretagne-en-3730002/
The Ille et Vilaine dept 35 tourist office on La Guerche de Bretagne : https://www.ille-et-vilaine-tourism.com/discover-ille-et-vilaine/culture-and-heritage/la-guerche-de-bretagne/
There you go folks, a beautiful monument for all to see, we love it !! The ride was wonderful in country roads the real life of France ! I bring you a beauty with nice spots in my curiosities of La Guerche de Bretagne ! Again, hope you enjoy the post as I
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 