Patrimony
Saint Martin d'Hères
Saint-Martin-d'Hères was created from the parish of Saint-Martin in 1100, on a plain filled with swamps and reeds. In 1488, a convent (Minimes convent) was built on the site. It housed the graves of the local nobility, among which was that of the knight Bayard. Nowadays, it houses the Poetry House, the Story-Telling Centre and the Cultural Heritage division.
Towards the end of the last century, the city underwent its first wave of development wave with the industrialisation of the Croix-Rouge district. Numerous factories opened, among which were the Neyret-Brenier factory and the Brun biscuit factory (one of the most important in Europe). The latter closed in December 1990.
The 1950's and 60's marked the beginning of a new era: the population explosion, the need for urban development, and the establishment of the university campus, have all greatly modified the city's landscape.
Blazon
From the hamlet of Hère (poor) or Hèra (swamp) to the city of Saint-Martin-d'Hères or Saint-Martin des Marais (Saint-Martin of the Swamps).
"Stone of the Bigot"
On Mûrier hill, in Bigot, there is an enormous, engraved rock known as the "Stone of the Bigot" that dates back to the Ice Age. It probably originates from a prehistoric period before the Bronze Age (end of the polished stone period). Hippolyte Müller, a pioneer in prehistoric research in the South-East of France, describes it as follows: "This rock is a two-metre long, one-metre-fifty wide, and one-metre-fifty high, erratic block with rounded angles. Made of mica-schistose, pink granite, it has a volume of four cubic metres. It is characterised by forty-six cup-shaped cavities hollowed out of the flat surface". Was it a rock dedicated to a rite? A landmark? A burial site? So far, the Bigot stone simply provides evidence of a very early human settlement on the site of the city.
Set at the foot of the hill, at a slightly higher level than the plains, Saint-Martin d'Hères was, in the beginning, a mere stopover on the Grenoble to Briançon Roman way which ran through the swampy plains. These plains were regularly flooded by the overflowing Drac and Isère rivers, making communications impossible for a good half of the year.
Towards 1100, following an initiative of the French bishops (dating back to the VIth Century), a block of houses and a church became, as many other hamlets at the time, a parish. In addition to the original place name, the parish was given the name of Saint-Martin, a Roman officer famous for sharing his coat with a poor man, who converted to Christianity and became the Bishop of Tours in 371. A few houses formed the hamlets of Malfangeat, Alloves, and Rhue along the former road going from Poisat to Gières via Saint-Martin. Steep paths led from the village to the hamlets of Bigot and Rhue and then to that of the Mûrier, located on the hill.
During the 12th Century, the Bishops of Grenoble had several windmills and a castle built on the highest part of the plains. It became their Summer residence and remained so until the middle of the 14th Century. Abandoned, then sold as a national asset under the Revolution, for some time it housed an imperial stud farm. In 1840, the nuns of "Notre-Dame de la Charité du Bon-Pasteur" took possession of the castle and founded a charitable establishment.
In August 1299, Aimery de Briançon, lord of Varces, sold all his rights over an estate located in Saint-Martin-d'Hères to the noble Jean de Saint-Savin, a knight who became Saint-Martin-d'Hères' first lord. Neither he nor his successors ever occupied the fortified house in Rhue.
Between 1488 and 1494, Laurent Alleman, Bishop of Grenoble and uncle of the knight Bayard, built a convent for the friars of the Order of the Minimes next to the castle. Saint François de Paule, whom Laurent Alleman had met at the court of King Louis XI, had founded the Order. For a time, the convent became the provincial headquarter of the Order and by 1529 it housed their highest authority, the General Chapter. Towards the middle of the 18th Century, religious people abandoned the convent after a major fire destroyed a third of the buildings, including the remarkable library, in 1714.
The Bishops of Grenoble's Castle (anonymous painting - XVIIIth Century)
Now known as "Le Bon Pasteur" in Saint-Martin-d'Hères.
In 1663, an estate of 14 hectares - "la Terralière" (also known as Chanas' farm) - located on the plain, was bequeathed to the "Maison de la Propagation de la Sainte-Foy", a half-secular half-religious congregation in charge of re-converting heretics.
A Natural Riverbed Diversion
In 1729, following heavy rains and a reversal of the flow of the Drac River, the Isère River - which used to do a loop up to the hamlet of Rhue, comprising a small port and a boatmen hostel - ran off its course and cut short right out of Gières in the direction of Grenoble, thus freeing a part of land which belonged to Meylan. By 1837, these lands were permanently incorporated into Saint-Martin-d'Hères giving the city its current geographic configuration.