1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nogent-le-Rotrou

NOGENT-LE-ROTROU, a town of northern France, formerly capital of the district of Perche and now capital of an arrondissement in the department of Eure-et-Loir on the Huisne, 38 m. W.S.W. of Chartres by rail. Pop. (1906) 6884. 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. On the hill overlooking the town stands the château of the counts of Perche, of which the donjon dating from the first half of the 11th century is the oldest portion. To Rotrou I., founder of the château, the town owes the second part of its name. 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 Sevastopol, and of the poet Rémy Belleau (16th century), a native of the town. The town has a sub-prefecture, a tribunal of first instance, a communal college and institution for deaf mutes.