Saintes

Saintes, town, Charente-Maritime département, Nouvelle-Aquitaine région, western France. It lies along the Charente River, 47 miles (76 km) southeast of La Rochelle. Saintes was the administrative centre of the Charente Inférieure département (now Charente-Maritime) from 1791 until La Rochelle supplanted it in 1810. Its bishopric was suppressed during the French Revolution in the late 18th century.

Saintes was originally a prosperous settlement in the area of the Santones, a Gallic tribe, and the town became the chief centre of the district later known as the Saintonge. After the Roman conquest it became known as Mediolanum Santonum. The town’s most noteworthy Roman remains are a ruined 1st-century amphitheatre and an arch that had been transferred from a Roman bridge. The old Saint-Pierre Cathedral, dating from the 15th century, was badly damaged by the Huguenots (Protestants) in 1568. The Romanesque church of St. Eutropius contains the tomb of that saint, who was the town’s first bishop. The Romanesque church of Sainte-Marie and the adjoining 11th-century Abbaye-aux-Dames are among the other noteworthy buildings in the town.

Modern-day Saintes is a market and commercial centre for the surrounding district, which is noted for the production of cognac and the cultivation of corn (maize), rape, and sunflowers. The town’s industries include machinery and electronic equipment manufacturing. A museum of the historical region of Saintonge is in Saintes. Pop. (1999) 25,595; (2014 est.) 25,149.