Henri II House (11 rue des Augustins)

The house was built for Hugues Pontard, Lord of Champdeniers, the king’s attorney in Saintonge. He died in 1564. His son François Pontard, mayor in from 1567 to 1568, lived there and decided independently to call upon Louis de Condé, and to attach the city, which had so far remained neutral, to the Protestant party.

At the end of the street stood the Augustinian monastery, deserted by the monks in 1562 and then used by the Protestants for worship. The 1571 a synod was held in the monk’s refectory. It was presided over by Théodore de Bèze, who ratified the text of the  Confession of faith composed by the 1559 synod in Paris. The second marriage of Gaspard de Coligny with Jacqueline de Montbel d’Entremont, princess of Savoie, as well as the marriage of the admiral’s daughter with Charles de Téligny (1535-1572), were both celebrated there in 1571. In 1584 Jean Guiton, the famous mayor during the Grand Siege, was baptised there.