Historical record
The small village of Montambert, surrounded by forests is still shaped like a medieval village. Long ago, i twas only a barren marshy land, swarming with brigands attracted by the traffic on the river Loire, quite nearby. (Port of Thareau, Saint Hilaire Fontaine).
Montambert was a dense thick forest till the year 1075 when William 1st, the earl of Nevers, decided to do something in favour of with wild part of the country : he asked the Benedictine monks to build a monastery which in fac twill be a priory and will be named St Pierre d’Antioche, still the name of the village church nowadays.
This priory was under the protection of « la garde gardienne » composed of the « watch of Decize Castle.
The monks cleared the forest and, so doing, provided a vast empty space where, little by little, they could see a sort of village life coming to existence.
They felled trees drained, the marshes turned the ground into pasture-land, created fonds and then , agriculture started being the main resource, which is still the case nowadays.
All around the priory families settled in modest dwellings. Between these dwellings were the « cours » small private pieces of land where the peasants would grow vegetables and fruit.
Some (other) cultivated lands belonged to the priory and were called « la réserve ».
A few names testify to this organization : we still have locaties called « les cours » and « la réserve ». Among the country estates you can still find names such as : « Bauduron » ; « Domaine Doré » ; « domaine Guilin » ; « domaine Joyon ».
The history of Montambert owes much to the building of this monastery « St Pierre », which, for several centuries, acted as a hospice, (and) a stopover for the Cluny Abbey monks, on their way to the priory of « la Charité sur Loire », and s shelter for all pilgrim benedictine monks.
Montambert was a dense thick forest till the year 1075 when William 1st, the earl of Nevers, decided to do something in favour of with wild part of the country : he asked the Benedictine monks to build a monastery which in fac twill be a priory and will be named St Pierre d’Antioche, still the name of the village church nowadays.
This priory was under the protection of « la garde gardienne » composed of the « watch of Decize Castle.
The monks cleared the forest and, so doing, provided a vast empty space where, little by little, they could see a sort of village life coming to existence.
They felled trees drained, the marshes turned the ground into pasture-land, created fonds and then , agriculture started being the main resource, which is still the case nowadays.
All around the priory families settled in modest dwellings. Between these dwellings were the « cours » small private pieces of land where the peasants would grow vegetables and fruit.
Some (other) cultivated lands belonged to the priory and were called « la réserve ».
A few names testify to this organization : we still have locaties called « les cours » and « la réserve ». Among the country estates you can still find names such as : « Bauduron » ; « Domaine Doré » ; « domaine Guilin » ; « domaine Joyon ».
The history of Montambert owes much to the building of this monastery « St Pierre », which, for several centuries, acted as a hospice, (and) a stopover for the Cluny Abbey monks, on their way to the priory of « la Charité sur Loire », and s shelter for all pilgrim benedictine monks.