Saint-Georges-of-Guards

Saint-Georges-of-Guards is a common French, located in the department of Maine-et-Loire and the area Pays of the Loire.

It is the seat of the production of the cookies Saint-Georges, one also finds many apple producers there.

Geography

splendid Landscape dominating the whole of Maine-et-Loire with 217 meters of altitude on the level of the ground of foot (close to the church) or an installation for tourist was conceived to enable them to highest discover the point of Maine-et-Loire. From there, the morphological structure consists mainly of a downward plain towards North being prolonged until the Vault-Rousselin and Chemillé. The South of the commune is, him, mainly made up of the southern slope of the hill of Puy of the Guard.

History

Demography

source: http://www.insee.fr/fr/ffc/docs_ffc/psdc.htm (Population without double accounts).

Places and monuments

Hill of the Guards : Culminating point of Maine-et-Loire to 217m of altitude in front of the 216m of Tourlandry. Saint-Georges-of-guards is the village highest of Maine-et-Loire. Puy of the Guard is considered by certain as an old volcano whose crater would be, according to the legend, under the Notre-Dame abbey of the Guards. The puy has average slopes of 12% with very abrupt variations reaching the 25% on the northern slope of the hill. The unevenness between the top and the plain is of 130m to the maximum. The village of the Guards, located on the top of the puy, offers a panorama époustouflant on the Mauges, its single and typical scrap-metal of hills and valleys. Moreover, the possibility is offered to the tourists to admire a panorama even vaster while assembling tens and tens of steps which lead to the bell-tower of the splendid abbey (the keys are available to the inn opposite the abbey): the sight is vertiginous… Other share, the hill is punctuated many remarkable sites (vaults, waders with deaths, cross, tables of orientation, fountain to the ass…) accessible by picturesque footpaths.

Abbey Notre-Dame of the Guards , rich remarkable site of splendid stained glasses, statues, reliquaries… Web site,

Vault of the Board Pickaxe : towards the end of the XVIIe century, in this place of the Board Pickaxe, the traveller could hardly clear a passage through the coppices and the fields of brooms. The paths, known in the country under the name of sunken lanes, were bad and, to cross the Bridge to the Gander, this brook which runs at the bottom of the valley, it had there only one board or rather a tree trunk surmounted by a slope, as badly fastened one as the other. It is on the primitive bridge that one called the Board Pickaxe. Moreover, in these strange places, the stone Bâl, this one was used for the sacrifices druidic. This monument inspired the horror, either by imagination, or by superstition, or an unexplained reality while letting suppose that the malignant spirits had taken possession of this lugubrious place, witnesses besides of several crimes, and where whoever could not venture without being seized of a terrible fear. At all events, around 1697, in middle of the night, a farmer, Michel Plessis, is seized on the Board Pickaxe of an appalling fear. He was, according to his remarks, attacked by a terrible animal which tightened the chest violently to him and threatened to throw it to water. Taken terror vis-a-vis this incarnation of the devil, it is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin so that she brings her purity and its relentless light in this place plunged in most impenetrable of the shades and promised to him to come to request it in this place if he were delivered. Reassured at once, it can enter healthy and except at his place to the village of Bordellière located not far from there. As of the following day, it holds word and practitioner a niche in a young elm, it there plae a statuette which one since then calls upon against the fear. In 1850, Dominique Plessis, postpones grandson of Michel Plessis, makes build a small oratory where the Virgin is placed. In 1858, this building is increased by a hood to protect the Virgin from the rain. In 1865, it is supplemented and takes the shape of a vault which lasted until 1892. July 7th, 1861, a noble lady had deposited, behind the statue of Marie, a wish, not signed, but sealed and sealed its weapons. Plunged in an extreme affliction, she had asked for all them his the protection of the Queen of the Sky and, promised in return, the sum of thousand francs for the construction of one vault to the Board Pickaxe. This ticket was found by Mister the Priest of the Guards who, after active research, ends up discovering the name of the generous donor. She did not live any more but its wishes had been filled. Of his/her many children, two had been dedicated to the service of the furnace bridges and all had remained faithful to God. They made honor with the word of their mother and thanks to them, the current vault of the Board Pickaxe was built. This place remains evocative still today of fear. Thus these places seem still and always inhabited of an indescribable presence which it is difficult not to feel. However this place henceforth sure is an ideal place for the hiker and the small adventurer who can stroll through the hills thanks to one of the pedestrian paths marked out very well.

Parish church Saint-Joseph : the church was destroyed during the month August 2006 (cf the site the Tribune of Art “new vandals”, and report on France 3).

Personalities related to the commune

See too

Parish church Saint-Joseph of Common Saint-Georges-of-Guards
of Maine-et-Loire

External bonds

Tourist office
Saint-Georges-of-Guards on the site of the national geographical Institute
Saint-Georges-of-Guards on the site of INSEE
Saint-Georges-of-Guards on the site of Quid
Localization of Saint-Georges-of-Guards on a chart of France and communes bordering

Plane and air photographs

Plane of Saint-Georges-of-Guards on Google Maps
Seen Satellite on Plane Géoportail
of Saint-Georges-of-Guards on Mapquest

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