Last modified: 2021-06-15 by ivan sache
Keywords: saint-fiacre-sur-maine |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
![[Flag]](../images/f/fr-44-sf.gif)
Flag of Saint-Fiacre-sur-Maine - Image by Arnaud Leroy & Ivan Sache, 4 June 2012
See also:
The municipality of Saint-Fiacre-sur-Maine (1,226 inhabitants in 2018; 597 ha; municipal website) is located on a peninsula formed by the confluence of rivers Sèvre and Maine, 15 km south-east of Nantes. The municipality is composed of Saint-Fiacre Bourg (capital) and of the villages of La Bourchinière, La Pétière, La Métairie and La Hautière.
Saint-Fiacre-sur-Maine was established in the late 15th century by the lords of Goulaine as the parish of Saint Hilaire-du-Coing. The place became a popular place of pilgrimage, where the market gardeners of Nantes used to celebrate their patron saint, St. Fiacre; upon popular pressure; the place was renamed to Saint-Fiacre in the 17th century. Fairs of regional fame were still celebrated in Saint-Fiacre on 30 August, St. Fiacre's Day, in the beginning of the 20th century.
The connection of Saint-Fiacre with the neighboring villages required the erection of three bridges. The Bel Abord bridge, funded by the inhabitants of Saint-Fiacre and Château-Thébaud, was inaugurated in 1836. The Ramée bridge to Vertou, already imagined in 1843, was built in 1858 as an iron, toll bridge, which was totally reconstructed in 1936. The bridge to La Haie-Fouassière was built in 1970.
Burned down by the Republicans in 1793-1794, the parish church was restored in the 1820s; in 1894, priest Baholet initiated the building of a brand new church, for which the villagers had spared money for the previous 27 years. The project was warmly supported by Mayor Auguste Bacque (in office, 1884-1913), an art amateur who traveled in the Middle-East and proposed a design in composite Romanesque-Byzantine style. Designed by the Le Dibderer brothers, architects in Nantes, the church is inspired by the St. Hilaire church in Poitiers, using characteristic features of the Romanesque architecture in Poitou (gate with semi-circular archivolts and without tympanum) The windows of the facade, as well as the gilded frescoes and mosaics that were completed in 1937, are of Byzantine style.
Ivan Sache, 15 June 2021
The flag of Saint-Fiacre-sur-Maine (
The arms of Saint-Fiacre-sur-Maine, designed by Michel Pressensé and adopted on 15 December 1970 by the Municipal Council, are "Vert a leaved bunch of grapes argent chapé argent two ermine spots sable".
[Armorial des villes et des villages de Frnace]
Ivan Sache, 15 June 2021