1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/St-Amand-Mont-Rond

ST-AMAND-MONT-ROND, a town of central France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Cher, 39 m. S. by E. of Bourges on the railway to Montluçon. Pop. (1906), 7711. The town stands at the foot of the hill of Mont-Rond on the right bank of the Cher, at its confluence with the Marmande and on the canal of Berry. A church of the period of transition from the Romanesque to Gothic style and several old houses are the more interesting buildings. The beautiful chateau of Meillant, built from 1500 to 1510 by the admiral Charles of Amboise, is 51/2 m. from St Amand; and the abbey of Noirlac, a R116 type of Cistercian abbey with a 12th-century church, is 21/2 m. from the town.

The town grew up round a monastery founded by St Amand, a follower of St Columban, in the 7th century. Its ruined stronghold, on the hill of Mont-Rond, was of importance in the middle ages, and during the Fronde, when it belonged to the great Condé, was a centre of resistance to the royal troops, by whom it was taken after a siege of eleven months in 1652. It was for a time the property of Sully, who retired to it under the regency of Marie de’ Medici.