A Walk Around Civray

I finally got round to walking Les Circuit Historique de Civray. I have come across various plaques in the town indicating places of historical note but I had yet to follow the walking route itself. This has now been remedied and may be of interest. (There again...maybe not...but you are getting it anyway!!!!)

Carte De Circuit Historiques De Civray

 

First stop was the Tourist Information Office itself, where I collected the free leaflet telling of the route with some accompaning notes. Unfortunately, these were in French - maybe I missed the English version or there isn't one. My French, however, was up to the task and the various plaques around the town are both in French and English anyway.

First stop was the building that houses the Tourist Office and the local Musée du Civraisien - L'Immeuble du Parc. This building was built in the 18th century and the Musée is on the top floor, accessed by a spiral, limestone staircase inside a square tower. The roof is an impressive oak-beamed affair and the archaeological remains on display include, among many others, an engraved reindeer bone which was found in the nearby caves of Chaffaud in Savigné.

L'Immeuble Du Parc

Close by stands the impressive Eglise de St-Nicolas which dominates Place Leclerc and the centre of the town.

Façade De L'Eglise St-Nicolas

This Church is one of the finest Romanesque churches in Poitou-Charentes and is thought to have been built in the second half of the 12th century. Its triptych-style façade (God, that sounds good eh!!!!!) is elaborately decorated with a multitude of carvings, covering a variety of themes - among them, the zodiac, the foolish virgins and the Assumption of Mary. The church is built to a traditional layout and is crowned with an octagonal lantern-tower. Inside are amazing 14th century frescoes.

Christ Surrounded By Emblems Of The Evangelists

The Altar

Fresco Detail Above The Altar

Fresco On Altar Ceiling

Place Leclerc is the main square in the town and was the site of the original Les Halles (market) when the square itself was called Place Royale. Les Halles were later moved and rebuilt in the Art Déco style in the adjacent Place Gambetta. On the opposite side of the Place, facing L'Eglise St-Nicolas, is what was L'Hôtel des Trois Piliers and which is now a bank; the hotel having closed in 1910. On the roof of this 16th century building can still be seen the bell which announced to travellers the hotel's presence. The building displays an interesting tower, door and windows.

The Hôtel de Ville in Place General De Gaulle nearby was built in the 19th century on the site of a Benedictine Convent. First a ribunal it is now only a minor tribunal.

The hotel 'de la Prevoté, built at the end of the 15th century, was the residence of the governor and
then the 'seneschal' (royal law officer) of Civray.

This building is also called the Louis XIII hotel: he slept here with his wife Anne d'Autriche and his mother Marie de Medicis in 1616.

The hotel is characterized by its spiral staircase installed in the tower, its pediment with pinnacles and a window of Renaissance style.

French savings banks are a relative recent thing. The one in Civray was established in 1836 and this building became its base in 1908.

The André Theuriet College was built during the second empire on the site of the Benedictine Convent created in 1637. André Theuriet (1833-1907) was an novelist and poet, member of the French Academy in 1896.
'Allée des Capucines' is due to the presence of Capuchin monks in Civray in 1613.

At number 32 Duplessi Street, have a look at the Pressac's house. It is the house of Norbert Pressac, priest of the village of St Gaudent, where he planted the first Freedom Tree (symbol of the French Revolution) in 1790.

At the corner of rue du Temple and rue Dupesis, observe the metallic box. It is the command of a gas street lamp.

The Perrin Bridge had been destroyed by a rise. It had been replaced by the Grand' Pont, built with stones of the medieval castle.

The retirement house 'le logis' had been created during the '50s by Doctor Guillard that gave a medieval tyle.

The small toer was part of a fortified door. The 'Aa' canal was the moats.

(Still to complete)

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