Fougères (Breton: Felger) is a commune and a sub-prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine department. Fougères’ major monument is a medieval stronghold built atop a granite ledge, which was part of the ultimately unsuccessful defence system of the Duchy of Brittany against French aggression, and part of a tripartate with Vitré
Fougères also has one of only three belfries in Brittany. Its location serves as the center of the weekend market. The belfry, built 1397, has symbolic importance: funded by local merchants it allowed ordinary people access to timekeeping previously the preserve of the church and nobility. Fougères is a town of Art and History. The town was involved in the rebellion against the French Revolution in 1793. A skirmish near Fougères was the subject of the French painter Julien Le Blant’s (1851–1933) most famous work “Le Bataillon Carré, Affaire de Fougères 1793” which won a Gold Medal in the Exposition Universelle in 1889. This large work is now located in the United States, at the Lee Library on the campus of Brigham Young University. A sizable section of the town walls survives, stretching from the château in the lower town up the hill to surround the upper town. The citizens in the lower town were outside the fortifications and had to retreat into the fortress in times of trouble.
There used to be an important shoemaking industry which is now almost extinct. There was also an important glass making industry. During the Middle Ages, salt was heavily taxed and was imported from the Breton regions to the rest of France. Fougères was made a stronghold for “salt smugglers,” who would creep along the wall of the city with confiscated salt, to sell in other regions. There is a communal garden in modern Fougères that commemorates this interesting and little known fact.
