Where Fleurie stands today was already occupied in around 1000 CE when Arpayé Abby was built here,
and where vines were already being grown,
Today’s main village centre (called Bourg) would seem to have grown up relatively late with the site having been occupied by a large estate that had a proprietary church for its own use: Saint-Martin.
Under Louis XVI and the French Revolution, there was a religious crisis, and the priesthood deserted Fleurie, to return in 1791.
The building of the Chapelle de la Madone, on one of the hills overlooking Fleurie, saw the day as war broke out in 1870.
One version says that the chapel was built in 1866 following a pledge by the inhabitants to Our Lady to combat a vine illness called grape powdery mildew. But the most probable hypothesis is that this building appeared after 1870, following a pledge if the Prussians didn’t invade Fleurie.
The 19th century was a period where Fleurie got organised and rebuilt. It was also a period of devastating vine illnesses: pyralid, grape powdery mildew and phylloxera, insects or fungi weakened economic life in the area and even almost cost the existence of vinegrowing.
Another milestone in the life of the commune was the construction of the wine co-operative in 1927. It was the first wine co-operative to be set up in the Beaujolais region and a name to remember out of the seven successive presidents since its creation is Mademoiselle Marguerite Chabert, a very distinguished Fleurie figure.