Surgères () is a commune in the

Charente-Maritime Charente-Maritime () is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region on the southwestern coast of France. Named after the river Charente, its prefecture is La Rochelle. As of 2019, it had a population of 651,358 with an area of 6,864 square kil ...

department, southwestern France. It is the home of the Surgères 48 Hour Race.

History

Middle ages

The site of Surgères was occupied in

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

times, but the earliest recorded history comes from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. The Duke of Aquitaine wanted to guard his lands in

Aunis Aunis () is a historical province of France, situated in the north-west of the department of Charente-Maritime. Its historic capital is La Rochelle, which took over from Castrum Allionis (Châtelaillon) the historic capital which gives its name ...

against Norman invasion, so he built a stone and wood defence on the marshes, a bridgehead against the invaders which was known as la, Castrum Surgeriacum, links=no. At the end of the 10th century, the

Counts of Poitiers Among the people who have borne the title of Count of Poitiers (or ''Poitou'', in what is now France but in the Middle Ages became part of Aquitaine) are: *Bodilon * Warinus (638–677), son of Bodilon *Hatton (735-778) Carolingian Counts ...

started to acquire power in

and appointed Guillaume Maingot to take charge of the fortress and part of the lands around it. In the 12th century this defence had become a small city, whose lords entertained the grandees of the parliament of

Saintonge Saintonge may refer to: *County of Saintonge, a historical province of France on the Atlantic coast *Saintonge (region), a region of France corresponding to the historical province Places * Saint-Genis-de-Saintonge, a commune in the Charente-Mar ...

. During this time a large castle was built on the ramparts, as was the Romanesque church of Notre-Dame. In 1152

Eleanor of Aquitaine Eleanor ( – 1 April 1204; french: Aliénor d'Aquitaine, ) was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of Henry II of England, King Henry I ...

married

Henry II of England Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (french: link=no, Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress, or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189, and as such, was the first Angevin kin ...

, thus putting her lands including Surgères into English hands. Coming back under French rule with Saint

Louis IX of France Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), commonly known as Saint Louis or Louis the Saint, was King of France from 1226 to 1270, and the most illustrious of the Direct Capetians. He was crowned in Reims at the age of 12, following the d ...

, the English took the town in a surprise raid in 1332 during the

Hundred Years' War The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of England and France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French throne between the English House of Plantagen ...

Renaissance and modern times (up to the French Revolution)

The history of Surgères is equally marked by Hélène de Fonsèque (1546 – 1618),

Pierre de Ronsard Pierre de Ronsard (; 11 September 1524 – 27 December 1585) was a French poet or, as his own generation in France called him, a " prince of poets". Early life Pierre de Ronsard was born at the Manoir de la Possonnière, in the village of ...

's muse, whose beauty he celebrated in his Sonnets pour Hélène. Queen

Catherine de' Medici Catherine de' Medici ( it, Caterina de' Medici, ; french: Catherine de Médicis, ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King ...

encouraged the affair between the fifty-year-old Ronsard and the beautiful Hélène, so that she could be part of the royal court as one of the ladies-in-waiting. Hélène was the daughter of Louis de Clermont and Roderic de Fonsèque, a Spanish family from Monterey. She married Philippe de Barbezières. Surgères regained some prosperity during the 16th century before the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholics and Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estimates, between two and four mil ...

. A coveted stronghold, it was occupied by

Calvinists Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John ...

and then by

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

troops after the fall of La Rochelle in 1628, when

Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu (; 9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French clergyman and statesman. He was also known as ''l'Éminence rouge'', or "the Red Eminence", a term derived from the ...

knocked down its ramparts.

19th and 20th centuries

After the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

of 1789, life in this little village became

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...

with the domination of a rural

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. Th ...

who took, as in all of France, a good deal of the lands of the Dukes of Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville, later Lords of Surgères. Winemaking and the distillery contributed to a "Golden Age" for the town, but

phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belong to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bu ...

brought it to an end in 1878. Afterwards, the dairy college (, "National College of Dairy and Agricultural Food Industries") contributed to the revival of Surgères. In 1850 Surgères absorbed part of the old commune of Saint-Pierre-de-Surgères, the other part being reattached to the neighbouring commune of Saint-Germain-de-Marencennes.

Heritage

Places and monuments

* Romanesque church of Notre-Dame, built in the 16th and 17th centuries, classified as a

Monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a col ...

(Historic Monument) since 1862. file:2008-08-Surgères-Church.JPG, Notre-Dame church, front file:2008-08-Surgères-church2.JPG, Notre-Dame church, side file:2008-08-Surgères-church4.JPG, Notre-Dame church, detail file:Archivoltes.eglise.de.Surgere.png, Notre-Dame church, drawing of a vaulted arch *The 16th-century ramparts, which have been an Historic Monument since 1925. With the separate tower in the Town Hall gardens and the Renaissance gate, the ramparts make up the remainder of the old castle. The tower is named "Tour Hélène" in homage to Hélène de Fonsèque file:2008-08-Surgères-Castle.JPG, The ramparts and the city gate file:2008-08-Surgères-Castle-townhall.JPG, The town hall and the tower *The old castle's grounds have been a classified site since 1828 *The town hall *The city gate *The 17th century Chapel of Saint Giles, a Monument Historique since 2004.

Industrial heritage

*The automotive factory of the Surgères Engineering Society (french: Société surgérienne de Constructions Mécaniques, links=no), built in 1918. This factory saw the development of the Poyaud business until it decamped to la Combe outside the town in 1974. It is near the station and had a branch line to the railway * ("The Caseinery") of the Caseineries Co-operative (french: Union coopérative des caséineries, links=no, built in 1914. This factory produced

casein Casein ( , from Latin ''caseus'' "cheese") is a family of related phosphoproteins ( αS1, aS2, β, κ) that are commonly found in mammalian milk, comprising about 80% of the proteins in cow's milk and between 20% and 60% of the proteins in hum ...

. It is near the station and had a branch line to the railway * ("The

creamery A creamery is a place where milk and cream are processed and where butter and cheese is produced. Cream is separated from whole milk; pasteurization is done to the skimmed milk and cream separately. Whole milk for sale has had some cream ret ...

") built in 1894, with many additions as it expanded. It is in the direction of

La Rochelle La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle''; oc, La Rochèla ) is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department. Wi ...

High street

file:2008-08-Surgères-Street.JPG, rue Audry de Puyravault file:2008-08-Surgères-markethall.JPG, Covered market

Geography

Surrounding communes

To the north lies the town of Saint-Georges-du-Bois, to the northwest Puyravault and Vouhé, to the west Péré, to the southwest Saint-Germain-de-Marencennes, to the south Vandré, to the southeast Breuil-la-Réorte, to the east Saint-Mard, and to the northeast Saint-Saturnin-du-Bois.

Location

Surgères is in the north of the department of

, equidistant from the towns of

Niort Niort (; Poitevin: ''Niàu''; oc, Niòrt; la, Novioritum) is a commune in the Deux-Sèvres department, western France. It is the prefecture of Deux-Sèvres. The population of Niort is 58,707 (2017) and more than 177,000 people live in th ...

, Rochefort and

Saint-Jean-d'Angély Saint-Jean-d'Angély (; Saintongeais: ''Sént-Jhan-d'Anjhéli'') is a commune in the Charente-Maritime department in southwestern France. The commune has its historical origins in the Abbey of Saint-Jean-d'Angély. Royal abbey Founded in the ...

. The village is south of the Marais Poitevin and east of the ancient province of

Hydrography

The town's name came from the Gères, the stream that runs through it. It empties into the Devise, which flows into the

Charente Charente (; Saintongese: ''Chérente''; oc, Charanta ) is a department in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, south western France. It is named after the river Charente, the most important and longest river in the department, an ...

Climate

Surgères has a temperate climate but in December 1999, like all of the department, was hit by the second

European windstorm European windstorms are powerful extratropical cyclones which form as cyclonic windstorms associated with areas of low atmospheric pressure. They can occur throughout the year, but are most frequent between October and March, with peak inte ...

of the season, codenamed

Martin Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austr ...

Transport

The

A10 autoroute The A10, also called L'Aquitaine, is an Autoroute in France, running for 549 km (341 mi) from the A6 south of Paris to the A630 at Bordeaux. It is the longest motorway in France. It generally parallels the N10 Route Nationale, but d ...

gives access at Exit 33 (

) to the northeast of the town and Exit 34 (

) to the southeast. The old Route nationale 11 (RN11) passes through the town. This road, reclassified to Route Départementale 911, connects

Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon () is a commune in the Deux-Sèvres department in western France. It is the birthplace of explorer René Caillié. See also *Communes of the Deux-Sèvres department The following is a list of the 256 communes of the Deux-S ...

to Rochefort. Route nationale 139, running from

Périgueux Périgueux (, ; oc, Peireguers or ) is a commune in the Dordogne department, in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. Périgueux is the prefecture of Dordogne, and the capital city of Périgord. It is also ...

, passed through Surgères and

Angoulême Angoulême (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Engoulaeme''; oc, Engoleime) is a commune, the prefecture of the Charente department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Angoumoisins ...

and has been declassified to Route Départementale 939. Surgères railway station connects the capital by

TGV The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...

, and is also on the TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine regional railway network. It is part of the program of , which aims to modernise the largest stations of the

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffic ...

(French National Railway Company). The railway arrived in Surgères in 1857 thanks to the Chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans. The Poitiers–La Rochelle line was electrified in 1993 to allow the TGV to run up to La Rochelle railway station. The line from Surgères to Marans which was part of the Freycinet Plan can also be traced. The closest airports are

La Rochelle – Île de Ré Airport La Rochelle – Île de Ré Airport (french: aéroport de La Rochelle – Île de Ré) is an international airport located in the city of La Rochelle, in the Charente-Maritime department, France. The airport also serves Île de Ré Île de ...

and Rochefort – Saint-Agnant Airport.

Administration

The Canton of Surgères is part of the Charente-Maritime's 2nd constituency where the delegate is Frédérique Tuffnell.

Population

Economy

The town of Surgères is known for its activities in the food farming industry, especially milk processing. Of equal promininence is

boilermaking A boilermaker is a tradesperson who fabricates steel, iron, or copper into boilers and other large containers intended to hold hot gas or liquid, as well as maintains and repairs boilers and boiler systems.Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Dep ...

and

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

Dairy industry

The town is principally known for its

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condim ...

which has AOC designation "Beurre des Charentes" or " Beurre Charentes-Poitou". The "Glac" (french: Groupement des Laiteries Coopératives, "Group of Dairy Co-operatives") distribute many brands of butter, milk and cheese such as Bougon, Saint-Loup, Lescure, Surgères, Le Petit Vendéen and Mottin charentais. With its brand Saint-Loup, the Glac is the shirt sponsor of the

Chamois Niortais Chamois Niortais Football Club (often referred to as ''Les Chamois'', Chamois Niortais, or simply Niort) is a French association football club based in the commune of Niort, in the Deux-Sèvres department of western France. It was founded in 1 ...

when they play at home, and has been a partner in the club for many years. The town is also home to the , a syndicate that developed at the end of the 19th Century to get Charentes-Poitou butter to the shops of Paris in under 48 hours. The syndicate is a partner of the Surgères 48 Hour Race and appears on the shirt of the best climber. The dairy industry was started by Eugène Biraud after the

Phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belong to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bu ...

crisis, with the first co-operative created in 1888 in an old distillery at Chaillé, to the northwest of Surgères. In 1907, a dairy college completed the picture. Beurre Charentes Poitou

Training in the food industry is under the control of the french: Pôle de Formation ENILIA ENSMIC (École Nationale d'Industrie Laitière et des Industries Agroalimentaires et l'École Nationale Supérieure de La Meunerie et des Industries Céréalières ("Training policy of the National College of the Dairy and Food Industries and Higher National College of Milling and Cereals"). These groups provide training from granting new licences (theory and apprenticeship) onwards, with the aim of meeting the needs of employers. The college takes students from all over France, and foreigners. Research activities are conducted on behalf of companies. The college works with 2,500 companies in 80 countries.

Metallurgy industry

The engineering sector with Poyaud

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-cal ...

s became ''

Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques The Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques (the Alsatian Corporation of Mechanical Engineering), or SACM, is an engineering company with its headquarters in Mulhouse, Alsace, which produced railway locomotives, textile and printing mac ...

'', then Wärtsilä Diesel. The Surgères site produced Char Leclerc engines but also engines for

railcar A railcar (not to be confused with a railway car) is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach (carriage, car), with a dri ...

s and

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the ...

s, and marine engines. This technology is also used in the production of large

electric generator In electricity generation, a generator is a device that converts motive power ( mechanical energy) or fuel-based power (chemical energy) into electric power for use in an external circuit. Sources of mechanical energy include steam turbines, g ...

s for hospitals, industry and offices of large companies. There are many other companies at this site, such as Sassaro (specialising in

stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's r ...

for the dairy and pharmaceutical industries) and Saro (specialising in

precision engineering Precision engineering is a subdiscipline of electrical engineering, software engineering, electronics engineering, mechanical engineering, and optical engineering concerned with designing machines, fixtures, and other structures that have excep ...

Other sectors

The Sibcas

slaughterhouse A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility. Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...

employs around fifty people and is near the creamery. Every October Surgères hosts a

livestock show A livestock show is an event where livestock are exhibited and judged on certain phenotypical breed traits as specified by their respective breed standard. Species of livestock that may be shown include pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, horses, llam ...

. Despite there being a

carpentry Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters t ...

school there is no furniture industry. In the neighbouring commune of Saint-Germain-de-Marencennes there is the Sofec factory, owned by Teissa the kitchen designer.

Media

The town has two major media for the north of

: *Radio Hélène FM (Surgères 89 FM, Saint-Jean d'Angély 102.9 FM), a general radio station with local information. It is the organiser of the singing competition ("Milky Voices"). *The newspaper ("Charente-Maritime Weekly"), published by

Groupe Sud Ouest ''Sud Ouest'' (French for "South West") is a daily French newspaper, the third largest regional daily in France in terms of circulation.

, which has many regional correspondents. It prints local information for the northern cantons of Charente-Maritime.

Culture

Music

The ("Academy of brass and percussion") organises a festival each summer which lets artists get together in Surgères and the surrounding communes. Since 2005, the summer Sérénade festival has been promoting

stringed instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the st ...

s with open-air concerts. This event is directed by Pierre Lénert, a violist and soloist in the orchestra of the Opéra national de Paris at the

Opéra Bastille The Opéra Bastille (, "Bastille Opera House") is a modern opera house in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, France. Inaugurated in 1989 as part of President François Mitterrand's '' Grands Travaux'', it became the main facility of the Paris Nat ...

. The band ("The Shiny Glasses") was champion of France in 2007 and 2008. This band won a Palme d'Or in the 2008 festival at Condom, Gers and have long accompanied the town's rugby team.

Facilities

Training

The is a professional school specialising in

woodworking Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making (cabinetry and furniture), wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning. History Along with stone, clay and animal parts, wood was one of the first mate ...

. There are also the School of the Pays d'Aunis and the dairy college of ENILIA-ENSMIC.

Research

As mentioned above, near to Saint-Pierre-d'Amilly is INRA's site for bird farming, snail farming and beekeeping.

Sport

The town was named the Most Sporting Village in France (of fewer than 10,000 inhabitants) in 1987. The most popular sport is rugby.

Rugby

The Sporting Club Surgèrien was founded in 1912 and is in the Poitou-Charentes league. It is now in the French Chaimpionship, Federal Division 3. The club was champion of this division in 1997. The final took place in

Graulhet Graulhet () is a commune in the Tarn department in southern France. It is a centre of tanning. Leather was the main activity before this industry largely relocated to China. Graulhet is crossed by the river Dadou. Graulhet is also one of the l ...

against Solliès-Pont.

Athletics

The Surgères 48 Hour Race is an

ultrarunning An ultramarathon, also called ultra distance or ultra running, is any footrace longer than the traditional marathon length of . Various distances are raced competitively, from the shortest common ultramarathon of to over . 50k and 100k are both ...

competition created in 1985. In 2009 it was won by Australian Martin Fryer, the 2008 world champion of 24-hour racing, and in 2008 by Ryoichi Sekiya. The 25th race, in 2010, took place from Friday 21 May to Sunday 23 May.

Showjumping

Showjumping in Surgères takes place every August. For the fifteenth meeting in 2008, it was one of the stages of Showjumping Grand National, with the best French showjumpers. Unfortunately the 2009 event was cancelled but it will return in 2010.Showjumping 2010

Motorsport

The Rallye d'Automne regularly has a show of its private collection on the Place du Château. In 2000

Yvan Muller Yvan Muller (born 16 August 1969 in Altkirch, Haut-Rhin) is a French auto racing driver most noted for success in touring car racing. He is a four-time World Touring Car Champion, winning the title in 2008 with SEAT, in 2010 and 2011 with Chevro ...

won. He had previously trained to win the Andros Trophy which he won after a season in BTCC on British circuits.

International relations

Surgères is twinned with: * –

Wipperfürth 310px, Map of the city 250px, Town hall Wipperfürth () is a municipality in the Oberbergischer Kreis of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, about 40 km north-east of Cologne, and the oldest town in the Bergischen Land. History The eldest d ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

, Germany.

Personalities

* Ernest Bersot, moral philosopher and French journalist, was born in Surgères. * Jean Baptiste Cacault, a brigadier-general, was born at Surgères, injured in battle at Juterbock, and died after having an arm amputated. * Raymond Couraud, gangster and WW2 hero * Edmond de Fonsèques, Baron of Surgères, married to Hardouine, daughter of Pierre de Laval-Montmorency * Jacques-Charles-François de La Perrière de Roiffé (1694 – 1776), doctor. * Hervé Michelet, French trumpeter, conductor of the Académie de Cuivres et Percussions at Surgères. * Clément Saunier, French trumpeter, student of the Académie de Cuivres et Percussions at Surgères.