Vendôme (, ) is a subprefecture of the department of Loir-et-Cher, France. It is also the department's third-biggest commune with 15,758 inhabitants (2023).
It is one of the main towns along the river Loir. The river divides itself at the entrance of Vendôme, intersecting it into numerous different arms. The town has a rich medieval history and many historical monuments.
History
Vendôme (in ) appears originally to have been a Gallic , replaced later by a feudal castle, around which the modern town arose. Christianity was introduced by in the 5th century, and the important abbey of the Trinity (which claimed to possess a tear shed by Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus) was founded about 1030. When the reign of the House of Capet began, Vendôme formed the chief town of a county belonging to Bouchard, called "the Venerable", who died in the monastery of in 1007.
The succession passed by various marriages to the houses of , and . Bouchard VI, Count of Vendôme and Castres (died ), left as his heiress his sister Catherine, the wife of John of Bourbon, count of La Marche. The county of Vendôme was raised to the rank of a duchy and a peerage of France for Charles of Bourbon (1515); his son , king of Navarre, was the father of Henry IV, who gave the duchy of Vendôme in 1598 to his illegitimate son César de Bourbon (1594–1665). , Duke of Vendôme, took part in the disturbances which went on in France under the government of and of ; he was the father of Louis, Duke of Vendôme, who married a niece of Mazarin, and . The last of his family in the male line was Louis XIV's famous general, (1645–1712). and INSEE (1968-2023)
|graph-pos = bottom
|1793 |6226
|1800 |7555
|1806 |7128
|1821 |6997
|1831 |7771
|1836 |8206
|1841 |9470
|1846 |8481
|1851 |9325
|1856 |9377
|1861 |9356
|1866 |9938
|1872 |9259
|1876 |9221
|1881 |9420
|1886 |9325
|1891 |9538
|1896 |9777
|1901 |9459
|1906 |9804
|1911 |9707
|1921 |9035
|1926 |9301
|1931 |9047
|1936 |9344
|1946 |10315
|1954 |10811
|1962 |13556
|1968 |16157
|1975 |17952
|1982 |17593
|1990 |17525
|1999 |17707
|2007 |16807
|2012 |17024
|2017 |16569
|2023 |15758
Sights
On the south, it is overlooked by an eminence on which stand the ruins of the castle of the counts of Vendôme. The abbey-church of the Holy Trinity has a façade in the florid Gothic style. Abbey buildings of various periods lie round the church. The church of La Madeleine (15th century) is surmounted by a stone spire, an imitation of that of the abbey.
- Gevelsberg, Germany
- Hampton, United States
- Rizhao, China
Climate
See also
- Communes of the Loir-et-Cher department
- List of counts and dukes of Vendôme
- Oratory of Jesus