Logi Marguerite Holiday

BRESSUIRE

	The Castle of Bressuire is one of the most precious specimens of the military architecture of the middle Ages. The landscape of Bressuire is a promontory between two valleys, which created a place of shelter and defence. Bressuire was first occupied a small tribe of Gauls known as the Ambiliates, who installed a hill fort (oppidum) on the site where the castle now stands. The first known Lord of the castle, Thibaud de Beaumont, is named in documents dating from 1060. Thibaud was also the founder of the Notre-Dame Church in Bressuire. The de Beaumont family owned the castle for nearly five hundred years. By 1190, Raoul de Beaumont (the master-builder of the Abbey of Saint de Marnes) had added a second set of ramparts about seven hundred metres in length with thirty-eight towers, which encircled the original stronghold with its eight larger towers. In 1360, Bressuire and the whole of Poitou reverted to English rule. Louis de Beaumont found no difficulty in rendering homage to the English and thus retaining his property. However in 1371, at the start of the Hundred Year’s War, Bertrand du Guesclin took over the castle and installed a garrison, although the de Beaumont family retained ownership.

	In 1441, Jacques de Beaumont became Lord of Bressuire and Chamberlain and Adviser to Louis XI. He converted the castle into a fine Lord’s House, building a huge construction which filled the courtyard. It had fine mullioned windows and splendid granite fireplaces in the rooms reserved for the Lord, and an elegant gallery. The last of the de Beaumonts died in 1510, and the castle passed between many owners, who generally neglected its upkeep. In 1730 a gale blew down a third of the fortifications and it was abandoned. From 1880, the castle belonged to Bernard family, and in 1975, the castle passed into the ownership of the City of Bressuire. In 1996, it was designated an Ancient Monument. Exhibitions, concerts, festive and cultural events are regularly organized on the site.

	The first church of Notre-Dame was founded at the end of the eleventh century by Thibault of Beaumont and the monk, Raoul de Beaumont. It is at the same time both a parish church and a priory. The church was burned down by the troops of Philippe Augustus during the twelfth century. Only the lower half of the walls of the nave and the big triumphal arch which separates the nave remain, together with the Romance door in the south wall.		The current nave dates from the beginning of the thirteenth century, but is the style of the end of the twelfth, Gothic Angevin (similar to the cathedrals of Angers and Poitiers). The church then comprised the current nave, a transept and a chorus (probably circular). One can see a group of three columns embedded in the west wall of the chorus, a relic of the ancient transept.

	Reconstruction of the Chorus:
	This was undertaken at the beginning of the sixteenth century, at the instigation of the Laval-Montmorency family (successors to the de Beaumonts). There is a flamboyant, significant, Gothic style in the prismatic mouldings of pillars and capitals and in the fenestration of the decorated canopies, where there remains some precious pre-Revolution stained glass. The construction of the tower (56 meters high) was completed in 1542 by the architect L Gendre Odonnet. The lower part is Gothic, the upper Renaissance. Organ Built just before the Revolution (January to November, 1792) the organ loft, originally of re-entrant shape, was extended in 1912, bringing it to the current form. The instrument itself was restored in 1922, and includes 13 sets of pipes with two keyboards and foot – pedals.

	Significant Features - A pieta (seated statue of the Virgin) of Catalan origin from the sixteenth century known as the "Miraculous Virgin". Before the Revolution, it was in the Cordeliers' nunnery (now the Town Hall). It was installed in the church in 1821, having been hidden not far from Clazay. - A tablet representing the virgin of Czenstokova, who is venerated in Poland. This was donated by officers and men of the Polish Army Centre installed in Bressuire at the beginning of the Second World War (1939-1940). - A splendid stela (an upright, decorated stone) in granite and polished bronze, in memory of deaths of First World War (1914-1918). -In the Chorus, some sculpted stalls. - Under the organ loft, to the right, the remarkable Chapel of Baptismal Fonts and the entrance to the tower staircase. - A variety of nineteenth-century frescos beneath the arches of the chorus (recently restored). - Under the arch on the north side, there is an ornamental decoration of green drapery decorated with pink acanthus leaves. - Under the central arch of the chorus are eight sculpted figures. The stained glass windows of the chorus have been restored by a glass-master in Angers. During the bombing of Bressuire by German artillery, the window glass suffered significant damage, especially that of the nave. This has been replaced by appropriate modern stained-glass windows. The church was designated an Ancient Monument in 1913 and is currently under restoration. In January, 2000, the city of Bressuire received the “Villes et villages gagnants" prize for its restoration of the Notre-Dame Church
	The multimedia library of Bressuire is situated in what used to be the sub-prefecture building. It was probably constructed in the course of the fifteenth century by the Patellière family, one of whom was the Mayor of Bressuire under Louis XIV. The building was rebuilt after a fire during the Wars of Vendée, and the library was opened in 1993.
	The Priory of Saint-Cyprien
	To conquer the Gauls in their hill fort (which stood where the castle was later built), the Romans had to call on barbaric mercenaries, the Taîffages, who came from the east of Europe and gave their name to the town, Tiffauges. As the Roman Empire declined, these mercenaries integrated with the local population to such an extent that at the end of the tenth century, there stretched at the foot of the promontory a feudal community, to whom the Viscount of Thouars decided to endow a church. In 1028, the Viscount gave the church and all the market town located near the present castle of Bressuire to the Abbey of Saint-Cyprien at Poitiers. The Abbey sent monks to set up a priory. That is how the history of Bressuire and its castle became linked with Saint-Cyprien.
	It remained a church up to the Revolution. After, it was at first disused and then turned into a barn. In 1948, the Société des Amis du Vieux Bressuire became aware of the necessity to save the construction from complete ruin and it was bought by the city in 1949. Two phases of restoration has been carried out in the past: - the first, in 1956 - the second, from 1973 till 1975 Currently, the priory is closed to the public for further reconstruction. Among the famous visitors to the priory was Archbishop of Bordeaux, Bertrand de Got who later became Pope Clement V.
	The church of Saint-Sauveur de Givre-en-Mai

	The church of Saint-Sauveur de Givre-en-Mai is situated in the small commune located near the town of Bressuire. The second part of the name translates literally as ‘white frost in May’ Legend has it that its name comes from a story going back to the year 732. After the victory of Charles Martel over the Saracens, a large band of them set up camp in the church and could not be ousted. They said they would surrender it only if there was a frost the next day. Miraculously, the following day, even though it was May, there was indeed a thick white frost. The Saracens kept their word and left the area. Thus the church is reputed to have got its name. The absence of written evidence makes it very difficult to confirm the date of construction of the church. The most that can be gathered is that the nave appears older than the choir, given that it has characteristic of a Romance style referred to as ‘primitive’. The entrance of the church breaks with tradition in that it faces the South, and not to the West as the majority of churches. The original church was probably enlarged in the twelfth century, and in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, more windows were created and larger buttresses installed. The church contains elegant beams, arches and lobed pillars. Light is admitted through windows pierced in the Gothic guttered walls. The interior decoration is rich in paintings, in particular the wall painting in the nave. The bell-tower is above the choir, reached via a staircase in a round tower and the roof of the church uses curved tiles. The church of Saint-Sauveur of the White Frost in May is an architectural jewel of the region and its acoustic and architectural qualities offer a remarkable venue for concerts.

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