LA PLACE DU CENTRE

PLACE DU CENTER It was the center of commercial life since the Middle Ages with its public well Cholet, close to the hat factory of Notre-Dame de la Pitié and not far from the prieural mill and the ban oven. Named in 1946 Place du Centre, but previously called Place de la Bascule since in 1912 the public weight was installed there and existed until 1970. This scale was installed thanks to subscriptions from the inhabitants. The profits made from its use soon led to the reimbursement of the subscribers and the scale became communal. During this time, the square was enlarged, and there was a hotel-restaurant with its own stable. With the passing of time, the square lost its importance to the benefit of the place de l'Église Madame. THE STREET OF THE ABBE BACONNAIS Already named in the Middle Ages Grand-Rue or rue Haute or even later rue Principale, justifying its importance in previous centuries. Before the Revolution, it was bordered by 3 chapelries: those of Saint-Martin, Saint-Hervé and Saint-Esprit. These chapelries were the landed property of rich owners in which the "priest, maintained chaplain" celebrated masses for the deceased of the founding families. They were neither chapels nor places of worship, but simple tiled houses with gardens and outbuildings. The houses on the street all belonged to the prioress, as did almost all the houses in the village. They sheltered craftsmen, bargemen and small merchants... Some of these houses, now renovated, are among the oldest houses in Moutiers. After the Revolution, the street was home to many businesses: grocery stores that sold everything necessary for everyday life, a shoemaker's, a butcher's, a bakery, an inn and a hotel... From the 1860s onwards, the street was transformed when very old low houses were demolished and replaced by more "bourgeois" constructions. But in the second part of the 20th century, its intense life declined in favor of the church square and only a few shops and the tourist office remained. Its name pays homage to the abbot Baconnais, born in Moutiers in 1821, descendant of an old monastery family, because his grandfather was before the Revolution the last fiscal prosecutor of the prioress and the lord of Bois-des-Trehans. He was never parish priest, but his love for his native land was such that he retired there in 1884. Alarmed by the storms that were washing away the dikes and dunes, he vehemently alerted the national authorities, but without success. So he resolved, as a testimony of his devotion to this commune, to consult all the ecclesiastical archives in order to write the history of this place that he loved so much and to testify to its state in 1889. With these funds he restored the church of Prigny, the lantern of the Dead, the statue of the Virgin, the Calvary of the Cross and made a bequest to ensure a perpetual bed at the hospice of Bourgneuf for a sick and infirm person of Moutiers. He died in 1897 and is buried in the family grave in the village cemetery. * Extract from Monique Albert's book "Flâneries aux Moutiers-en-Retz".