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Châtel-Censoir-Historical Centre

Historical Centre

The village owes its name to St.Censure, 9th bishop of Auxerre, who owned property there in the fifth century. The first written mention of Castrum Censurium the castle of censorship appears only two centuries later. The inhabitants of ChâtelCensoir are called Castelcensoriens and Castelcensoriennes.

The upper town

With its eleventhcentury castle, it was the centre of the lord‘s political and military power until the French Revolution.  It was also the centre of religious and intellectual power with the clergymen at the Collegiate Church SaintPotentien (between the eleventh & sixteenth centuries), to which pilgrims flocked until the eighteenth century.

In the upper town, many attractive dwellings were built between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, although they were often remodelled.

The promontory offers a beautiful view of the elegant port, the Canal du Nivernais and the Yonne valley.

Chatel censoir

The low town

Initially limited to the confluence basin, the town gradually grew to reach the plateaus, the neighbouring valleys and finally to the railway station which was built in 1886.

The lower city was initially the city of the commoners; full of craftsmen, commerce and rural life (there were 6 farms within the city walls), then

from the middle of the sixteenth century, it became home to the river companions“. 

From the eighteenth century, the new merchant bourgeoisie, particularly linked to the timber trade, settled there.

Finally, the lower town definitively became the centre of political power in the nineteenth century, when the majestic building housing the Town Hall was built in 1842.

Famous People

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–  Edme Champion, known as the Little Blue Coat (17641852) was the first person to organize soup kitchens in Paris. His birthplace is at 18 rue Champion. His is buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

Achille Tenaille de Vaulabelle (17991879), author of  History of the 2 Restorations“, and Ministre de l’instruction Publique from July to October 1848. His birthplace is at 10 rue Vaulabelle.

The Cotteau brothers: Edmond, mayor from 1830 to 1870 and Gustave (18181894) founder of the Academy of Sciences in Yonne.

ColonelRozanoff  (1905-1954) A Dassault test pilot (Mystere IV)

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