Fontenay-le-Comte

Fontenay-le-Comte lies on the Vendée River and was long regarded as the chief town of Lower Poitou. In the Renaissance its lawyers and scholars gave it an intellectual reputation, while wealthy patrons built handsome houses, the château of Terre-Neuve and the Fountain of the Four Tias. The Wars of Religion brought suffering to the town; in 1793 it was again fought over by republican and Vendéan forces.