Tulle

History

Antiquity

The origins of the town are still subject to debate today but it would seem that the present puy Saint-Clair, a rocky spur with steep slopes separating the Corrèze valley from that of the Solane, was an ideal location for the establishment of a Gallic oppidum. For a long time, it seems that the town has been an important crossroads on the road between Armorique and the Mediterranean Sea and on the road between Aquitaine and the Rhone Valley, both of which crossed the Corrèze at this point by a ford.

With the Roman occupation, the place would have been converted into a necropolis and temple in honour of Tutela, a Roman divine power to whom the protection of people, things and especially places was entrusted, would have been built. This Roman goddess, protector of the travellers who used to use the ford, is the namesake of the city. The temple of Tutela must have been located in the Trech district, whose name refers to the crossing of a river. The real urban centre of the region moved a few kilometres north, to the commune of Naves and the site of Tintignac, which became a crossroads between the Roman roads that followed the ancient routes of the Celtic period.

Middle Ages

The Merovingian period would have seen the Christianization of the city and the establishment of three places of worship dedicated to St. Martin, St. Peter and St. Julian. The city officially entered history only with the transformation in the 7th century of the church dedicated to Saint Martin into a monastery under the impetus of Calmine, already founder of the monastery of Mozat in Auvergne. Around the places of worship began to gather the inhabitants of the country and Tulle became once again an urban centre, a status lost since the Roman conquest.

The town was plundered several times by the Vikings, despite being several hundred kilometres from the sea, and it was during one of these sackings, in 846, that the first monastery was destroyed. To warn the inhabitants of the town of the arrival of the Vikings, a watchtower was built on a rocky promontory at Cornil, a few kilometres downstream from the Corrèze.

The place was nevertheless considered safe by many churches on the Atlantic coast who had sent their relics there to preserve them from looting, notably those of Saint Clair, Saint Lô and Saint Baumard. The monastery was later rebuilt but disappeared in the 11th century. In 1989, excavations under the nave of the present cathedral uncovered the remains of an apsidiole dating from the Carolingian period as well as a poly-lobed portal of Mozarabic influence.

New constructions are undertaken for the abbey, now dedicated to Saint Martin and converted to Benedictine rule in the 11th century. On a visit to Tulle in 1095, Pope Urban II granted it his protection. The first stone of the new abbey church was laid in 1130 but the building was not completed until two centuries later. The spire of the 12th century culminates at a height of 75 metres, making it the highest in Limousin. In 2005, during construction in the vicinity of the cathedral, excavations uncovered the north wall of the medieval church of Saint-Julien, the discovery of a cemetery and three granite sarcophagi dating from the High Middle Ages. In addition, the Gothic cloister is the last one preserved in Limousin.

In 1317, Pope John XXII created the diocese of Tulle by detaching fifty-two parishes from the diocese of Limoges and the abbey-church became a cathedral. During the Hundred Years' War, the English took the city in 1346 before being driven out of it a month later by the Count of Armagnac, suffering in quick succession two trying sieges during which the inhabitants were reduced to famine. In 1370, the city sided with the King of France, Charles V, which earned it tax exemption and the ennoblement of several bourgeois families. But in 1373, the Duke of Lancaster appeared before the city and demanded that the gates be opened to him, and, in the absence of any command, a representative assembly of the population was convened and decided to carry out the request to avoid a new sacking. The pardon of the King of France for this betrayal took place in 1375.

Modern period

The abbey is practically disused with the secularization of 1514. The bishop had a castle built and the refectory became the seat of the court. In 1566, King Charles IX endows the town with a town hall and a consulate which definitively reduces the power of the bishop.

During the Wars of Religion, Tulle held out for the Catholics; the town first resisted the Huguenots in 1577, but the troops of the Viscount of Turenne took bloody revenge in 1585. They ransacked and devastated the town after an assault that the Protestant poet Agrippa d'Aubigné recounted.

In the 16th century, the nobles and bourgeois of Tulle engaged in a veritable architectural competition, of which buildings with finely crafted facades in Renaissance style such as the Hôtel de Lauthonye (1551), the Hôtel de Ventadour or the Loyac house described by Prosper Mérimée in 1838, still stand today. In the 16th century, a college was created and in 1620, teaching was entrusted to the Jesuits. In 1670, the town was equipped with a general hospital.

Numerous religious congregations settled in the town, the Recollects (1601), the Poor Clares (1605), the Feuillants (1615), the Ursulines (1618), the Bernardines (1622), the Visitandines and the Carmelites (1644) as well as the Benedictines in 1650. In 1705, Sister Marcelline Pauper founded a house in Tulle for the congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, to relieve the misery of the people and to teach children to read.

From the 17th century onwards, new economic activities appeared, the mills on the Corrèze and Solane rivers being used to produce paper for example. The lace craft develops and the "poinct de Tulle" develops until its fame becomes worldwide, tulle being frequently used for wedding dresses in particular. It was also the beginning of the arms industry in Tulle with the establishment of a factory in 1691 resulting from the collaboration between the master harquebusier Pauphile and the financier Fénis de Lacombe. The firearms factory will become a royal factory in 1777.

The mutilations of the cathedral and the abbey buildings were very significant during the French Revolution because, converted into a weapons factory, all the fittings, including the irons supporting the dome, were torn off for recovery, causing the collapse of the dome, the chevet, the transept and the north gallery of the cloister in 1796. The Episcopal Palace, two parish churches and several chapels in the suburbs were destroyed during the Revolution. The church was reopened for worship in 1803 but did not regain its title of cathedral until 1823, while the dome was never rebuilt, the nave being simply closed and the open space used for a promenade along the Corrèze on the current Quai Edmond-Perrier.

Contemporary era

During the 19th century, the physiognomy of Tulle changed a lot. A railway station opened in Souilhac district in 1871 and the town was then connected to the national railway network via Brive-la-Gaillarde. At the same time, new industries were created, notably the firearms factory. In 1886, the latter was nationalized and settled in the new district of Souilhac, along the Céronne, a river that would provide it with electricity with the construction of a hydroelectric power station in 1888.

From 1917 onwards, trains passing on the nearby tracks would supply the thermal power station with coal at the level of the present Socio-Cultural Centre. Up to 5,000 employees worked at the "Manu'" as it was then known. The Manu' was the economic lung of the city and influenced the social composition of the Tullist population, which was strongly coloured by the workers.

The urban junction between the working-class district of Souilhac and the historic district of the cathedral is made by the urbanization of the current avenue Victor-Hugo. As in many other French cities inspired by the renovations of Baron Haussmann in Paris, the end of the 19th century saw the city open up, notably with the construction of the current Avenue du Général-de-Gaulle in the Trech district and the enlargement of the Place de la Cathédrale. At the same time, work was undertaken to limit the frequent floods and to clean up the city by burying the Solane river, which until then had flowed at the foot of the buildings.

The city also acquired new public buildings in its role as the prefecture and main city of the department, such as the construction of the Town Hall (former bishopric), the Prefecture, the Hôtel Marbot (former Grand Séminaire), the Law Courts, the Post Office, the Halle-Gymnase (now the Latreille Hall) and the Lycée Edmond-Perrier, many of which were built in an Art Nouveau style. Completed in 1899, the Theatre is a monument of Anatole de Baudot, the first building of its kind in the world in reinforced cement. From the beginning of the 20th century, the town began to spread out on the very steep slopes of the valley and urbanisation spread.

Tulle became a garrison town from 1841, when an infantry regiment settled in the former barracks located on the Champ-de-Mars, on the current site of the Cité administrative, along the Corrèze.

Geography

Tulle is the third largest town in Limousin, behind Limoges and Brive-la-Gaillarde. It is situated in a very deep part of the river Corrèze valley, at its confluence with several of its tributaries, the Solane and the Céronne on the right bank, and the Saint-Bonnette and the Montane on the left bank. It stretches along a very narrow strip several kilometres long from the northeast to the southwest.

Climate

Tulle has an oceanic climate under the Köppen classification (Cfb). Rainfall is high year-round and temperature differences between seasons are larger than in coastal areas.

Transport

Tulle is located at the crossroads of several routes:

Bordeaux - Clermont-Ferrand - Lyon axis: RD 1089 and the A89 motorway;

Uzerche - Sévérac-le-Château axis: link between the A20 and the A75 via Tulle, Argentat-sur-Dordogne, Aurillac, Montsalvy, Espalion and Laissac. This corresponds to taking the RD 1120 then the departmental roads 920 and 28 and finally the RN 88.

Tulle station has rail connections to Brive-la-Gaillarde, Ussel and Bordeaux. Tulle is the meeting point between the South-West of France and the Massif Central. It is the former capital of Bas-Limousin, whose boundaries correspond approximately to the current department of Corrèze.

Economy

Tulle's role as a centre for lace making is highlighted by an "international lace festival" held each August. The town is also home to the Maugein accordion factory, which once employed 200, though this figure is now much reduced. Near to this there was, until recently, a significant armaments manufacturing business, but its site is now (2011) marked only by an armaments museum.

Located in another part of town is a car parts plant owned by the American Borg-Warner company, and employing approximately 300 people.

Government

Tulle is the seat of the general council of the Corrèze

Tulle is the seat of the agglomeration community Tulle Agglo

Tulle is the seat of the canton of Tulle, which consists of the commune of Tulle

Tulle is the prefecture of the Corrèze department

Mayors

Mayors of Tulle since 1949 were:

Jean Massoulier (1949–1959) for the Radicals

Jean Montalat (1959–1971) for the SFIO

Georges Mouly (1971–1977) for the RPR

Jean Combasteil (1977–1995) for the PCF

Raymond-Max Aubert (1995–2001) for the RPR

François Hollande (2001–2008) for the PS (elected President of the Republic in 2012)

Bernard Combes (2008– ) for the PS

Politics

Tulle's MP in the National Assembly of France for nearly 15 years was the Socialist François Hollande, who was elected President of the Republic in 2012. Hollande also served as mayor of the town.

Education

Normal school of teachers

ISMIB (Higher Institute of Management of Woodworking Industries)

IUT of Nouvelle-Aquitaine: departments Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) and Industrial Engineering and Maintenance (GIM)

Lycée Edmond Perrier: establishment of secondary and higher education, technologic and general (1100 pupils). The school offers a Scientific CPGE (Preparatory classes schools).

Institute of Nursing Education

Gendarmerie training school

CFA (Training center for apprentices) of the 13 vents

Culture

Arts and festivals

Festival Nuits de Nacre (accordion music) since 1984 with a strong notoriety

Festival O'les choeurs (music, theater and exhibitions) since 1997

Festival Du bleu en hiver (jazz, rock and blues music)

International festival of lace

Photographic Art Festival

Museums

Museum of the Resistance and Deportation

Museum of Weapons

Museum of the Accordion

Twin towns

Tulle is twinned with:

Schorndorf, Germany

Errenteria, Spain

Bury, England, United Kingdom

Lousada, Portugal

Smolensk, Russia

Dueville, Italy

Notable people

Tulle is the birthplace of:

Laurent Koscielny (b. 1985), football player

Éric Rohmer (1920–2010), film director

Marcelle Tinayre (1870–1948), woman of letters

Alphonse Rebière (1842–1900), science writer

Edmond Perrier (1844–1921), zoologist and director of the National Museum of Natural History

Étienne Baluze (1630–1718), scholar

Jean-François Melon (1675–1738), economist

Jacques Brival (1751–1820), French Revolutionary

Thomas Domingo (b. 1985), rugby player

Léon Eyrolles (1861–1945), politician and entrepreneur

Charles Silvestre (1889–1948), writer, winner of the Prix Femina in 1926

Philippe Manoury (b. 1952), composer

Marie-Anne Montchamp (b. 1957), Secretary of State for Solidarities and Social Cohesion

Robert Nivelle (1856–1924), Commander-in-Chief of the French army (1916–1917)

The following people have resided in Tulle:

François Hollande (b. 1954), the former President of France, who was elected during the 2012 French presidential election and who previously served as Mayor of Tulle.