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Flag of Pont-l'Abbé - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 24 October 2004
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Pont-l'Abbé (in Breton, Pont-n'-Abad, 8,400 inhabitants; municipal website) is the capital of Pays Bigouden, a traditional district located in southern Brittany (Cornouaille). The town of Pont-l'Abbé is located between the end of the estuary of the Rivière de Pont-l'Abbé (in Brittany, rivers are often named after the city built on their estuary) and a big pond.
Like (mostly) everywhere in Brittany, prehistorical megalithic
monuments have been found near Pont-l'Abbé, namely the menhirs
(erected stones) of Guiric and Pen Laouic (today in the river), and the
dolmens (lying stones) of Menez Bodillo and Merc'hen (both
destroyed).
After the conquest of Brittany, the Romans built a castrum (fortified
camp) on the top of the hill dominating the today's town of
Pont-l'Abbé, a place locally called Menez (mount) Roz Ar Hastel. There
was a Roman roa between Quimper and the point of Penmarc'h.
The name of the town (lit., the Abbot's Bridge) comes from the bridge
built between the port and the pond by the monks of the abbey of
Loctudy, located on the mouth of the Rivière de Pont-l'Abbé. In the
9th century, the Northmen sailed back the river and sacked the abbey.
The monks abandoned the domain of Pont-l'Abbé to feudal lords, who
built a small fort in the 11th century. The first known Lord of
Pont-l'Abbé is Juhel du Pont, who was captured during the siege of Dol in 1173.
The dynasty of the Barons of Pont throve during the nexts centuries.
Several Barons of Pont played an important role in the military and
religious history of Brittany. In 1214, Hervé du Pont and his brother
Eon were bannerets (they were allowed to lead their vassals
under their own banner) during the battle of Bouvines, when King of
France Philippe-Auguste defeated a coalition set up by German Emperor
Otto IV, John Lackland, the Count of Flanders and the greater vassals
of the Kingdom. In 1223, Hervé du Pont retroceded to the Abbot of
Loctudy the rights on the parish and the tax on wine. In 1294, Robert
du Pont, Baron Geoffroy's brother, was appointed Bishop of Saint-Malo. Baron Hervé III founded in 1350 the St. Johns' Hospital near the river
and the St. Tudy's chaplainy in his castle. In 1383, Baron Hervé IV
built a White Friars' monastery, whose chapel became later the parish
church, and the first wharf of the port. Baron Hervé VI was killed in
1426 during the siege of Saint-James-de-Beuvron.
In 1441, Jean I du Pont was appointed Greater Baron of
Brittany and was invited to the crowning of Duke François I. Baron Pierre fought in 1488 during the siege of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier.
The last Baroness, Louise du Pont, died in 1426. Jean V du Quélennec,
grandson of one of Louise's aunts, was granted the Barony. Quélennec
was sent two times to the King of France Henri II to negotiate
franchises for the Duchy of Brittany. In the beginning of the 16th
century, Charles du Quélennec, aka Soubise, converted to the reformed
religion. He expelled the chaplains from his castle and led an uprising
in Périgord (south-west of France) during the Wars of Religion. He was captured and jailed in Jarnac but escaped. He was killed in the court of the palace of Louvre in Paris when defending Admiral de Coligny
(1519-1572), the leader of the Protestant party, during the St.
Bartholomeuw's slaughter (23-24 August 1572) ordered by Queen of France
Catherine de' Medici and the Guise family.
At the end of the 16th century, the civil war between the Holy League and the Royalists spread to Brittany. The Royalists seized Pont-l'Abbé in 1588 and the castle was looted; its clockwork, then the best in Brittany, was shipped to the neighboring city of Concarneau. The warlord Guy Eder de la Fontenelle sacked Cornouaille. He set up his headquarters on the Tristan island, off the port of Douarnenez, whose fortifications he had destroyed. In 1595, Fontenelle sacked the village of Penmarc'h; the next year, he killed 1,500 peasants in Plogastel-Saint-Germain. The garrison of Pont-l'Abbé besieged Tristan island, to no avail. In 1598, King of France Henri IV appointed him Governor of the island, provided he stopped his criminal acts. Fontenelle was involved in a plot, arrested, sentenced to death and put on the wheel on the place de Grève in Paris in 1602. Baroness Hélène de Beaumanoir, aged 18, was besieged in 1604 in her castle by an army commanded by her husband and had to surrender.
After the end of the Wars of Religion, the Catholic religion was
reestablished in Pont-l'Abbé and Loctudy by Reverend Father Le Nobletz.
In 1622, the first Municipal Council was set up in Pont-l'Abbé. The
Council, composed of 12 burghers and 12 craftsmen, was presided by a
Syndic. In 1674, the Barony of Pont was transfered to Armand Jean de
Vignerot, the grand-nephew of Cardinal de Richelieu. In 1685, the Barony of Pont was sold to François Joseph d'Ernothon. In
1718, Ernothon approved the claims of the States of Brittany against the absolute power of the King of France and was exiled. His successor, Jean Théophile d'Ernothon, went mad and jumped out a window of the castle in 1738. The Barony was purchased by Henri Baude
de Saint-Père in 1753 for 500,000 pounds. The literary critic Élie
Fréron (1718-1776), born in Quimper, married in 1766 in the chapel of
the castle. Fréron is mostly known as the unfortunate rival of
Voltaire, who ridiculed him under the name of Frelon (in French,
hornet) in several epigrams. In 1847, a riot broke out in Pont-l'Abbé when potatoes were loaded on a
ship whereas the local population starved.
In 1675, the peasants revolted in the so-called Red Caps' Revolt, after Colbert had imposed high taxes in order to fund Louis XIV's war againt Holland.
The peasants released their claims in the Peasant's Code, approved on 2
July 1675 in the chapel of Treminou. The uprising spread to the whole
Pays Bigouden: the lord of Cosquer-en-Combrit was hung by the peasants
and the castle of Pont was looted and burned. The White Friars of
Pont-l'Abbé were forced to approve the
Pont-l'Abbé lost its prerogatives in the States of Brittany in 1779.
The municipality of Pont-l'Abbé was established on 1st February 1790.
The village of Lambour was incorporated to the new municipality on 13
December 1790. In 1791, the Constituent Assembly defined the
limits of the municipality of Pont-l'Abbé, which was increased with
four rural districts taken from the neighbouring municipalities of
Combrit, Loctudy, Plobannalec and Plomeur. The parish of Pont-l'Abbé
was set up the same year. Beforehand, Pont-l'Abbé was divided between
the two parishes of Loctudy and Plobannalec, whereas Lambour belonged
to Combrit.
In August 1792, baron Jean Georges Claude Baude was involved in the
failed attempt of escape of the royal family and had to exile. On 7
November 1793, the name of the town was changed to Pont-Libre (Free
Bridge). The castle of Pont was sold in 1799 to François Jérôme Le
Déan, and eventually bought by the municipality in 1836, in order to
house the Town Hall, the Court of Justice, the Gendarmerie and the
School.
In the beginning of the 20th century, lace industry was the main
activity in Pont-l'Abbé. Strikes regularly broke out because of the
miserable condition of the working-class life. In 1961, the farmers
demonstrated violently against the low price paid to early potatoes.
Ivan Sache, 24 October 2004
The flag of Pont-l'Abbé (photo) is horizontally divided in seven stripes,
yellow-black-yellow-black-yellow-black-yellow. The first vertical third
of the flag (near the hoist) is plain yellow with a red lion.
The municipal arms of Pont-l'Abbé are "Or a lion rampant gules armed and langued azure."
The arms "Or a lion gules" belonged to the first dynasty of the Barons of Pont, which dates back at least to the 11th century. The motto of the lords of Pont was Heb Chang (Relentlessly). On the municipal arms, the motto was changed to Heb Ken. According to Per Jakez Hélias, the exact meaning of Heb Ken is obscure; it can be read "No more no less", as a symbol of the Bigoudens, "true to all their defaults and their few virtues" and abalamour eo kaletoh or penn eged kerniel an diaoul ruz (with the head harder than the horns of the red devil).
Ivan Sache, 24 October 2004