Fontenay-le-Comte
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The story of Fontenay-le-Comte
Fontenay-le-Comte is a commune in the Vendée department of western France, on the Vendée River southeast of La Roche-sur-Yon. In 2022, it had a population of 13,806.
Its history reaches back to the time of the Gauls. The name element comte is said to have been applied when King Louis IX took Fontenay from the family of Lusignan and gave it to his brother Alphonse, count of Poitou; under him it became the capital of Bas-Poitou. That position later placed it in the path of larger struggles: it was ceded to the Plantagenets by the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360, then retaken in 1372 by du Guesclin. The town suffered repeated capture during the 16th-century French Wars of Religion, was dismantled in 1621, and was occupied by both the Republicans and the Royalists during the War in the Vendée in 1793.
Fontenay-le-Comte also served as the seat of the Vendée department from 1790 to 1806. Today it is a commune of France with an area of 34.05 square kilometre, and its long record is still tied to its role as a local center on the river.