La Ferté-Vidame

La Ferté-Vidame
View of Ferté-Vidame castle, before 1750, Louis-Nicolas van Blarenberghe
Coat of arms
La Ferté-Vidame
Location within Centre-Val de Loire region  La Ferté-Vidame
Coordinates: 48°36′44″N 0°54′06″E / 48.6122°N 0.9017°ECoordinates: 48°36′44″N 0°54′06″E / 48.6122°N 0.9017°E
Country	France
Region	Centre-Val de Loire
Department	Eure-et-Loir
Arrondissement	Dreux
Canton	La Ferté-Vidame
Intercommunality	L'Orée du Perche
Government
• Mayor (2008–2014)	Jean-Pierre Jallot
Area^1	39.81 km^2 (15.37 sq mi)
Population (2008)^2	766
• Density	19/km^2 (50/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	28149 / 28340
Elevation	214–286 m (702–938 ft) (avg. 246 m or 807 ft)
^1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. ^2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

La Ferté-Vidame is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France.

History

The title of vidame of Chartres was, under the Ancien Régime, attached to the lands of [La] Ferté-Arnault. Among the famous men to bear the title vidame de Chartres were the English soldier Thomas de Scales, 7th Baron Scales (d. 1460), Jean de Ferrieres, and the memoirist Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon. The chateau was Saint-Simon's main country house. At the French Revolution the seigneur was Jean-Joseph de Laborde, an ennobled business man with progressive views, who was to be guillotined in 1794.

Castle

The Château de la Ferté-Vidame was substantially rebuilt by the architect Antoine Matthieu Le Carpentier in 1771. It is now a roofless shell.^[1]

Population

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
1962	693	—
1968	793	+14.4%
1975	790	−0.4%
1982	784	−0.8%
1990	801	+2.2%
1999	818	+2.1%
2008	766	−6.4%

See also

• Natural region of Thymerais
• Communes of the Eure-et-Loir department

References

• INSEE

1. See the photo in the French Wikipedia article