Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

In 1827, a sabotier accidentally discovered coal in Marillet, near Faymoreau, marking the beginning of a mining operation that would span 130 years. This deposit quickly attracted local industries such as a glass factory (1836), producing bottles for Cognac and Bordeaux, as well as tiles and brickworks. The Société des Mines de Faymoreau built in 1840 the first corons to house the miners, structuring an entire village around mining activity: workers' quarters, chapel, schools, and housing for management.

The arrival of the railway in 1869 (Angers-Niort line) boosts production by facilitating the transport of coal. In 1922, the Faymoreau power plant electrified the South Vendee and neighbouring departments, attracting foreign labour, especially Polish, and bringing the population to over 1,000 inhabitants. However, the depletion of the deposit in the 1950s struck the end of the adventure: the plant closed in 1950, and the mine finally closed in 1958.

As early as 1995, the municipality launched a tourist development project. The museum opened in 2000 in the former dormitory of glassmakers and was upgraded in 2018. Today, it retains mine-related objects (tools, carboniferous fossils) and bears witness to the lives of miners. Labeled Musée de France, the site highlights a unique industrial and social heritage, combining ethnology, history and science.

The mining centre also illustrates the economic changes in the region: from the coal age (XIX-20th centuries) to its cultural conversion. The corons, the miner's chapel and the industrial remains are reminiscent of a time when Faymoreau was a beating heart of the Charente-Vendean industry, marked by European immigration and technical innovations.

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