Denier anonymous

Other references: Legros# 1543.

The primitive height of the town of Sancerre, on a plateau two kilometers high on the left bank of the Loire, is associated with the legend of the conqueror of Gaul, Julius Caesar. According to this legend, the name of "Sancerre" would be taken from a hypothetical Sacrum Caesaris, or "of Caesar the Sacred", then Christianized in Saint-César or Saint-Cère. But modern toponymic studies reject this explanation. Indeed, after the abandonment of the high site, the city moved to the plain, where now stands a sanctuary dedicated to Saint Satyrus, an African martyr of the 3rd century, near the trade routes and a cemetery outside the small city. In 1034, mention is made of a castle "Sancti Satyri": the popular form of Satyrus gives Sayre in old French, then Serre, hence the name Sancerre.