Saintes, Charente-Maritime

Arch of Germanicus and the Charente River

Saintes is on the banks of the Charente River, in the center-eastern part of the department. The city is based 60 km southeast of La Rochelle,[9] 33 kilometers northeast of Royan,[9] and about 100 km north of Bordeaux[9] (to which it is linked by the A10 autoroute).

A chronostratigraphic stage of sedimentary rock (in stratigraphy) has been named after the former name for inhabitants, the Santones, the Santonian (approximately 84 Ma ago, after the Coniacian Age and before the Campanian Age in the Cretaceous Period). Saintes is built on its eponymous subset of mainly limestone that consists of particular flint nodules of quartz geodes and nodules of iron. Ancient stone quarries in its 'Colline de la Capitole' (Capitol Hill) and Bellevue, partially filled or converted to permit fungiculture, are evidence for Santonian stone's use in the construction of various buildings, where unimproved quite vulnerable to frost.[10]

Nearer to the river, the Cretaceous plateau gives way to more or less recent alluvial grasslands composed of bri, a type of clay.

The uplifting of Alps and Pyrenees began during the Maastrichtian, 65 Ma ago, and continued for a part of the Paleogene.

Courthouse, district Saint-Vivien.

The town is divided into 14 administrative areas : Les Boiffiers, Les Tourneurs, L'Ormeau de Pied, Recouvrance, La Fenêtre, Saint-Rémy, Saint-Vivien, Saint-Eutrope, Saint-Pierre, Saint-Pallais, Saint-Sébastien de Bouard, La Récluse, Le Maine-Saint-Sorlin and Bellevue.[11]

The Post Office on the left bank.

City Hall on the left bank, district Saint-Pierre.

The neighborhood of Saint-Pierre lies between the hill of the Capitole and the river Charente. It possesses a significant number of historic monuments justifying its forming of the core of a conservation area that spans over 65 hectares (0.25 sq mi).[12] Built around the cathedral Saint-Pierre, the place du marché and the place du Synode, it is crossed by pedestrian alleys around which can be found numerous medieval, renaissance and classic buildings.[13]

Almost immediately west lies the neighbourhood of Saint-Eutrope, that has developed over the centuries around a rocky elevation bounded by two small valleys at right angles to the river. Dominated by the Saint-Eutrope basilica, it also contains the remains of a Clunian priory and several hillside houses. Little valleys lead to the vallon des Arènes (meaning arenas vale) below, where a Roman amphiteatre survives, in a park named "Parc des Arènes".[13]

The cours Reverseaux and cours des Apôtres de la liberté separate Saint-Eutrope (and its hill) in the west from the faubourg Berthonnière. These partly separate the hill of the Capitole to the north. Once outside-of-the-walls, the faubourg included some hostelries and inns for pilgrims.[13] The streets of the faubourg converge toward the place Saint-Louis, the place de l'Aubarrée and the place Blair, dominated by a column of Liberty (in France popularised as fictional Marianne at the time) erected during the Revolution.[14] The square Goulebenéze stands between the place Blair and the river.

The neighbourhoods of les Boiffiers and Bellevue are separated from the rest of the city by the avenue de Saintonge; they consist mainly in low-rent housing (HLM) and suburban housing standing on a plateau bounded by the Charente. Bellevue has 1,560 inhabitants and spans 17 hectares (42 acres); it is listed as a zone urbaine sensible (ZUS).[15]

La Recouvrance, in a triangle formed by the cours du maréchal Leclerc, the cours Genet and the rocade ouest (bypass), contains a lycée, the former seminary, the Yvon Chevalier stadium and a shopping mall. The water tower of Recouvrance is decorated with frescoes by contemporary artist Michel Genty.

The north of the urban area, the Saint-Vivien neighborhood has an old faubourg (exurb) inhabited since antiquity where the thermes de Saint-Saloine, ancient Roman baths are found.[13]

Abbaye aux Dames on the right bank

The neighborhood of Saint-Pallais was probably urbanized in antiquity. Structured around the main access way of the Roman city, it was then linked to the town center by a bridge with a monumental entrance, the Arch of Germanicus. During the Middle Ages, a funeral basilica, dedicated to the bishop Palladius, was established (and later replaced by the église Saint-Pallais, which gives its name to the neighborhood), then a Benedictine abbey of women amongst the largest in the region, the Abbaye aux Dames de Saintes. The presence of this monumental heritage led to the integration of part of the neighborhood in a conservation area. It was during the 19th century that the neighborhood began to develop. The antique bridge was destroyed and replaced in 1879 by the pont Bernard-Palissy, a few meters upstream ; the avenue Gambetta and the place Bassompierre are created ; the train station, the Gare de Saintes, the prison, the Haras national de Saintes, the parc Pierre-Mendès France, the Jardin public Fernand Chapsal and the protected area of the prairie de la Palu[13] were subsequently created.

The autoroute A10 leaving Saintes towards Bordeaux

Saintes is a transportation hub of some importance, connected by two motorways and several secondary roads, national and departmental, that converge towards the rocade (partly a 2x2) that bypasses the city on its western and southern sides.

The A10 autoroute (France), operated locally by Autoroutes du Sud de la France, passes through the commune in its western part, in a north-south axis. It can be accessed by the interchange 35. By the A10, Saintes is 125 km from Bordeaux, 140 km from Poitiers, 470 km from Paris.

The A837 autoroute is a spur road of the A10 linking the area to Rochefort, the third city in the department.

The Saint-Eutrope basilica from the Avenue de Saintonge

Saintes is on the Route Centre-Europe Atlantique, an expressway that links it to Limoges and Lyon in the east – its dualled western section Saintes-Saujon opened to traffic in 2008 making the two 25 minutes apart by car. An extension towards Royan on the coast completed in the following decade.

The rocade is formed in its western part by the national road 137, that meets two key roads, the departmental road 728 (that links Saintes to the Island of Oleron by Marennes) and the departmental road 150 that intersects near the locality of Diconche. In its southern part, the rocade integrates the national road 141, that runs east towards Cognac, Angoulême and Limoges. The departmental road 150, at the end of the east part, runs towards Niort by Saint-Hilaire-de-Villefranche et Saint-Jean-d'Angély. The town center of Saintes is bypassed by the avenue de Saintonge or departmental road 24, that crosses the Charente with the bridge de Saintonge, opened in 1969.

The Gare de Saintes (train station) is at the focal point of five railways that link the agglomeration to Nantes (by La Rochelle), Bordeaux, Angoulême, Niort and Royan ; the trains are mainly part of the regional rail network TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine and the network Intercités.

In 1894, the station was the starting point of a 3 km long network of tramways that was stopped in 1934. In 1894 was also founded a secondary railway 42 km long linking Saintes to Mortagne-sur-Gironde, by Gémozac, then a somewhat important economic center ; however, this railway was dismantled in 1947.[16]

The importance of this railway network is explained by the designation of Saintes as the seat of the Compagnie des chemins de fer des Charentes in 1867, then as the regional seat of the VIIIth arrondissement of the Chemins de fer de l'État from 1911 to 1971. The SNCF is still a major employer in the city, and new depots and workshops have been opened in 2009 and 2010.