Fougères (French pronunciation: [fuʒɛʁ] ⓘ; Breton: Felger; Gallo: Foujerr) is a commune and a sub-prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine department, located in Brittany, northwestern France.

The presence of many megalithic monuments, particularly in the Forest of Fougères [fr], suggests that the area was already inhabited in the Neolithic era (5000 to 2000 years BC).

At the time, it was a simple wooden fortification located on a rocky ridge, whose position favourably dominated the Nançon [fr] Valley and the surrounding marshes.

Raoul II stubbornly rebuilt a more imposing structure and it became a stronghold defending the borders of Brittany from Mont Saint-Michel to Nantes.

When Raoul III offered its possession to Louis IX of France, the Breton prince Pierre Mauclerc captured the city in 1231, which was re-captured by the king.

The daughter of Raoul III, Jeanne de Fougères, who married Hugh XII of Lusignan, undertook new fortification work and beautified the city.

However, in 1449, a man named François de Surienne, an Aragonese mercenary at the service of the English, captured and sacked the town in an attempt to force Brittany to ally with England.

The Duke of Brittany allied with Charles VII of France and attacked the south of Normandy, laying siege to Fougères.

The Marquis de La Rouërie, a young man of high standing, then moved to the United States to fight with American insurgents.

Back in France, after having been imprisoned for a month for leading the Breton conspiracy [fr], he was greeted as a hero in his homeland.

The Organization of the Revolutionary Celebrations [fr] reflected a favourable feeling from the population to the new regime: Little by little, industry replaced crafts and Fougères saw the establishment of shoe manufacturers.

The 20th century was marked by the British and American bombings on 8 June 1944, during Operation Overlord, which killed 300 people, injured twice as many, and destroyed most of the public and industrial facilities.

Funded by local merchants, it allowed ordinary people access to timekeeping, previously the preserve of the church and nobility.

The gate of the 15th century[17] with a double drawbridge presents many defenses including moats, embrasures, machicolations, etc., and a protective Virgin turned outwards.

The Notre-Dame Gate [fr] was listed a historical monument by Decree of 9 December 1946, with the south and west of the city walls.

In military strategy, note that the castle is not on high, but on a deposit of la cornéenne, which prevents the risk of attacks by mining and from underground.

The mass-closure of SMEs and the concentration of employment into fewer companies (mainly Réhault, JB Martin and Morel et Gâté) provided a second wind to the Fougères industry (4,500 employees in 1966).

The slowdown in growth during the second half of the 1960s, then the oil shock in 1973, caused a massacre in the footwear sector, particularly in February–March 1976, with the closure of three companies (Réhault, Morel et Gâté and Maunoir) and the dismissal of 1,140 employees.

Since 2008 and the closure of Hasley, only the JB Martin company maintains the tradition of footwear production in Fougères (F. Le Bot, Laurence Héry).

[24] Since the end of World War II, the Trente Glorieuses boosted Fougères and the town increased its population until the 1975 census, arriving at almost 27,000 inhabitants.

The town was devastated by successive closures of factories from a crisis in the shoe sector, and refused the implantation of the Citroën company on its territory.

Today the shoe sector has a few hundred jobs in the town: For example, the JB Martin company remains in Fougères, even though it has completely relocated its production to Asia.

More than 30 hectares (74 acres) of business parks, between the motorway and the city centre, give an economic attractiveness to the area.

The urban area of Fougères [fr] has 20 communes gathering 42,818 inhabitants (2009) including 46% of this population which is in the town centre.

[27] The central hospital of Pays de Fougères has just completed its renovation in 2013: It offers access to 13 care services, emergency, maternity, 16 specialties and 440 beds.

Higher education is present at Fougères, notably in the field of health: The town has 38 remarkable trees [fr].

Subsequently, the building served as an SNCF point of sale, until its demolition in 2001 to make way for a shopping complex in the town centre.

For some time, the idea of the return of trains to Fougères has risen in some minds, but eluded most of the local elected representatives.

Fougères is a town of Art and History (Villes et Pays d'Art et d'Histoire), a designation assigned to historic areas by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication.

This large work is now located in the United States, at the Lee Library on the campus of Brigham Young University.