- Step on the A84, has the City Villedieu-les-Poêles labels and Craftsmanship and Village Stage.
- A brief history...
- Villedieu-les-Poêles is a small town nestled in a valley in the heart of Normandy close to the Mont-Saint-Michel, on the edge of Siena.
- In the twelfth century the King of England, Duke of Normandy, offered the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, driven from the holy land, land in the locality called "Siennêtre" they named Villa Dei, Villedieu in French. They established the first Commandery and built a hospital. The hospital later became the Order of Malta.
- Strategically located, the meeting point of nine royal roads, many corporations smelters, tanners, engravers, silversmiths and a colony of "poesliers" came from the old Gallic village of La Lande of it Airou settled. The people soon became skilled in the processes of smelting bronze and hammered copper art. Villedieu already had an established reputation, so that Rabelais alluded in his work Pantagruel.
- It was the first time manufacturing of church ornaments and bells. Villedieu has three foundries bells of France. Established since 1865, it is still active and exports worldwide. It was at this time that people were nicknamed "Sourdins", metalworking making much noise, many workers became deaf.
- Then came the manufacturing of stoves (the porridge) is also there that the city takes its name: Villedieu-les-Poêles. Today, the world's leading restaurateurs have cookware from companies Villedieu.
- Later, Villedieu workshops are oriented towards commercial products. Thus rods milk, fountains and basins are emerging.
- For a walk through the city and surrounding area
- Villedieu is also Notre Dame church, listed building. From simple chapel in the twelfth century Romanesque church becomes the thirteenth to transform itself into a fortress in the Middle Ages. Between the fifteenth and seventeenth century, his last builders offer him the apse and a Gothic bell tower. Inside its walls there are many works preserved attacks of time as the window of corporations, a sculptor, a picture of the adoration dating from the seventeenth century, organs dating from 1831 which houses the buffet 2000 pipes!
- Not to mention, the presbytery, the Holy Trinity Saultchevreuil church, the Saint-Pierre-du-Tronchet church and chapels.
- In the old town, porches and passageways manifest the presence courses for medieval names, called in air shafts, like the three kings court, the court of hell, the court with lilies, the court with Isaac corbelled houses. They were at the time an important element of social and economic organization of the city. The most emblematic remains the focus of the court (or "dig"), local expertise showcase, and a listed building.
- The granary, dating from 1874, houses the library today.
- The City Hall, Republic Square, built in the mid-nineteenth century granite of the region is permeated by the spirit Renaissance and Second Empire style, with pilasters and columns. In top of the steps the arms of the Sovereign Order of Malta - two ECU based on a Maltese cross, surmounted by a ducal crown - dominate.
- But Villedieu is not only an industrial city. It is also the center of a prosperous farming country; the weekly market on Tuesday, attended by thousands of visitors, is one example.
- And for those who prefer the atmosphere of raw nature, the beautiful valleys of Siena and in the heart of Airou Sourdin countries have natural heritage full of good representative of a verdant Normandy roads.
- Villedieu, perpetuates tradition through many crafts:
- The dinandier stretches, thins, lamin, soda and brush copper. A dozen craftsmen and four companies perpetuate this tradition.
- The bell founder finds the origins of his job with the appearance of the first Christian bells in the sixth century, it "mold keychain" monumental bells according to old methods of several centuries. The tin material used since antiquity, was very popular from the fifteenth century and declined, mid eighteenth, during the development of the pottery industry.
- The potter works the clay locally, traditionally baked at 1200 ° C in the region since the fourteenth century.
- There are still shops where the wood is worked according to the traditions.
- Bobbin lace Villedieu is distinguished by three floral motifs: the rose, daisy and clover. In the nineteenth century, Parisian hairdressers addressed to lace Villedieu.
- Watchmaking is also a local production. All parts are from the region of Pont Farcy and Bloutière.
- The expertise of Villedieu-les-Poêles is present and available to the public in various museums that make up the town: Norman Furniture Museum, the Museum of Poëslerie, the House of the Lacemaker and the Kingdom of the clock.
- The glass blowers that you can discover as you stroll through the streets.
- Villedieu, a city turned towards the future:
- Villedieu is the twenty-first century a well-fledged city, proud of its past and turned toward the future as evidenced by its recent ranking "Ville et Métiers d'Art" awarded in 1999 by the French Confederation of Crafts who and reward its great craft tradition.
- Already renowned as a must artisanal tourism, the city committed today in a genuine policy of encouragement and featuring artists welcome into its workshops over. Villedieu and perpetuates its expertise in the area centuries of copper, which had a very important role in its development, but also in the working of other materials.
