Fougères

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For the family of perfumes, see Fougère.

Coordinates: 48°21′09″N 1°11′55″W / 48.3525, -1.19861

Commune of Fougères

Felger

View of the old town and the castle of Fougères

Location

Coordinates

48°21′09″N 1°11′55″W / 48.3525, -1.19861

Administration

Ille-et-Vilaine
(sous-préfecture)

Arrondissement

Fougères

Canton

Chief town of 2 cantons:
Fougères-Nord
Fougères-Sud

Intercommunality

Fougères Communauté

Mayor

Jacques Faucheux
(Since 2001)

Statistics

Elevation

62 m–171 m
(avg. 97 m)

Land area^¹

10.47 km²

Population^²
(1999)

21,779

- Density

2,080/km² (1999)

Miscellaneous

INSEE/Postal code

35115/ 35300

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

² Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) only counted once.

The Château in Fougères.

Fougères (Felger in Breton, Foujerr in Gallo) is a town, a commune and a sous-préfecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine département in France.

1 Sights
2 Economy
3 Demographics
4 Miscellaneous
- 4.1 Births
- 4.2 Twin towns
5 External links

[edit] Sights

Fougères' major monument is a medieval stronghold built atop a granite ledge, which was part of the ultimately unsuccessful defence system of the Duchy of Brittany against French aggression, and part of a tripartate with Vitré and Châteaubriant. 48°21′13″N 1°12′34″W / 48.35361, -1.20944

Fougères also has one of only three belfries in Brittany. Its location serves as the center of the weekend market. The belfry, built 1397, has symbolic importance funded by local merchants it allowed ordinary people access to timekeeping previously the preserve of the church and nobility. Fougères is a town of Art and History.

A sizable section of the town walls survive stretching from the château in the lower town up the hill to surround the upper town. The citizens in the lower town were outside the fortifications and had to retreat into the fortress in times of trouble.

[edit] Economy

There used to be an important shoemaking industry which is now almost extinct. There was also an important glass making industry.

During the Middle Ages, salt was heavily taxed and was imported from the Breton regions to the rest of France. Fougeres was made a stronghold for "salt smugglers," who would creep along the wall of the city with confiscated salt, to sell in other regions. There is a communal garden in modern Fougeres that commemorates this interesting and little known fact.