Bourg-Saint-Andéol

Bourg-Saint-Andéol is a commune, located in the Ardèche department (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France). The town is located on the right bank of the Rhône near Pierrelatte (Drôme department).

Bourg-Saint-Andéol is the shopping center for surrounding villages. In the mid 80es, several factories closed and economy almost drowned (ceramics). Nowadays, Pierrelatte with the site of Tricastin, first atomic energy plant in France. Another noticeable economical source of the area – already a typical mediterranean zone – is wine, with the Côtes du Rhône méridionales (southern) gathering four other communes around the city (Saint-Marcel-d’Ardèche, Saint-Just and Saint-Martin-d’Ardèche). An oil mill has been recently re-established for olive harvests in the area.

Tourism and main attractions

Bourg-Saint-Andéol is a tourist town par excellence. The informed visitor will find numerous listed monuments illustrating a major historical and architectural past.

The dolmens of the Bois des Géantes have been classified since 1900.

There still exists, overlooking the quays of the Rhône, the former convent of the Visitandines, today the mother house of the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary. The building still houses rare architectural elements, furniture and a large chapel where the faithful and nuns meet on Sunday mornings.

The city hospital, located as an extension of the historic center and formerly outside the walls, was also a convent managed by the Récollets order. An elegant freestone bell tower dominates a cloister and buildings.

The town hall, largely remodeled following the wave of deadly bombings of 1944, was also a convent, that of the Ursulines, who took charge of the education of the young girls of Bourg-Saint-Andéol.

The old city center also has a series of mansions from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Some of them were largely destroyed during the war and some completely disappeared from the city’s urban landscape. Despite these tragic events which deeply marked the city and its urban planning, Bourg-Saint-Andéol retains an exceptional heritage.