Nogent-le-Rotrou

• Name — Nogent-le-Rotrou • Commune Status — Subprefecture and commune • Arrondissement — Nogent-le-Rotrou • Canton — Nogent-le-Rotrou • Insee — 28280 • Postal Code — 28400 • Mayor — Jérémie Crabbe • Term — 2024–2026 • Intercommunality — Perche • Elevation M — 108 • Elevation Min M — 97 • Elevation Max M — 213 • Area Km2 — 23.49

Nogent-le-Rotrou was the former capital of the Perche with the count living in the impressive medieval Château Saint-Jean which still dominates the town from a plateau of the same name. Its keep dates from the first half of the 11th century. The town gets the second part of its name from Rotrou I, Count of Perche. In the early part of the 17th century the overlordship was acquired by the duke of Sully, financial minister of Henry IV. In the courtyard of the hospital, originally founded at the end of the 12th century, there is a small building containing the tomb of Sully and his wife.

The town lies within the Perche at the heart of a vast agricultural zone. Many jobs were therefore tied to agriculture, but the numbers declined sharply from the late 1970s with up to 5% of jobs being shed each year. Industrial employment owed much to the automotive sector which counted for almost 10% of jobs in the 1980s and 1990s and these were heavily linked to components manufacturer, Valeo. The company had a local workforce of over 1000 in 1999, but this too has been in decline as Valeo has delocalised to follow clients such as Renault to Romania. The headcount had fallen to 800 by April 2007, when Valeo announced that would be cutting a further 260 jobs between July 2007 and December 2009. All is not doom and gloom, however, as the German medical and pharmaceutical supplier, B. Braun Melsungen announced in early 2009 that it would be investing 20 million euros to modernise its local plant for it to specialise in the production of infusion pumps used in the intravenous administration of drugs. As a result, employment on the B. Braun site is to increase from 450 to 500. There is also a large military presence, with the town being the base for one of France's three civil defense units. L'Unité d'instruction et d'intervention de la Sécurité civile n°1 (UIISC1) was created in 1978 and in 2001 there were 650 men at the base. They are used both at home and abroad, in all types of disaster situation.

The previous mayor was the centre-left François Huwart, who held power between 1989 and 2020. He followed in the footsteps of his father, Robert Huwart, who was mayor from 1965 to 1987.

In addition to the château, Nogent preserves three Gothic churches and the remains of the old priory of St Denis, and there are statues of General St Pol, killed at the Siege of Sevastopol, and of the poet Rémy Belleau, a native of the town.

• Clara Filleul (1822–1878), painter, children's writer • Gustave Le Bon (born 1841), social psychologist, sociologist, anthropologist • Yoann Kowal (born 1987), athlete • Paul Tirard (born 1879), diplomat • Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully • Mathilde Mauté, wife of the poet Paul Verlaine • Joël Gouhier (born 1949), racing driver

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