Toulouse is a town in the southwest of France. Capital in the 5th
century of the Visigoth kingdom, one of the capitals (from the 7th
to the 9th century) of the kingdom of Aquitaine, capital of the
county of Toulouse founded in 852 by Raimond I and historical
capital of Languedoc, it is today the capital of the Occitanie
region, of the Haute-Garonne department, and the headquarters of
Toulouse Métropole. It was also the capital of the former
Midi-Pyrénées region until its disappearance on January 1, 2016.
With 479,553 inhabitants on January 1, 2017, Toulouse is the
fourth most populous municipality in France after Paris, Marseille
and Lyon, having gained 101,000 inhabitants over the last 47 years
(1968-2015). Its inhabitants are Toulousains and Toulousaines. The
urban area of Toulouse had 1,360,829 inhabitants in 2017, which
also made it the fourth in the country. With 968,638 inhabitants in
2017, the agglomeration is the fifth, behind that of Lille and ahead
of those of Nice and Bordeaux. It is also the center of a metropolis
of 771,132 inhabitants in 2017.
City with the characteristic
architecture of the cities of the South of France, Toulouse is
nicknamed the “pink city” because of the color of the local
traditional building material, the terracotta brick. The development
of Toulouse's violet culture in the nineteenth century made it an
emblem of the city and earned it the nickname "city of violets". It
is also, much more rarely, nicknamed the "Mondine city" (Ciutat
Mondina in Occitan), in reference to the dynasty of the city's
counts, often named Raymond.
Linking Toulouse to Sète, the
Canal du Midi has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since
1996. The Saint-Sernin basilica, the largest Romanesque building in
Europe, has also been listed there since 1998 as part of the
Saint-Jacques de Compostela.
Toulouse is the European capital
of the aeronautics and space industry with the sites of Airbus
Commercial Aircraft and its parent company Airbus (group). It has
more than 100,000 students and according to L'Express, it was the
most dynamic city in France in 2009. The economic magazine
Challenges renews this title in 2012 and 2015.
The emblematic
sport of Toulouse is rugby union, its Stade Toulouse club holding
the richest record on the national level as on the continental
level, with twenty titles of champion of France and four titles of
European champion.
Cassoulet, sausage and violet are the
emblematic specialties of Toulouse gastronomy.
By plane
Toulouse-Blagnac International Airport (IATA: TLS) is
approximately 8 km outside of the city. It is best reached by taking the
airport bus, which makes several stops in the city center. Lufthansa
offers several direct flights daily from Frankfurt am Main and Munich.
By train
You can take the train from Austria or Germany at night
to Paris Est; then take the metro to Paris Montparnasse, from where it
is best to take the TGV to Toulouse-Matabiau. Toulouse-Matabiau train
station is north-east of the city centre, which can be reached on foot
in around 15 minutes.
There are good connections to almost all
regions of France. In addition to Paris z. B. Bordeaux and Montpellier
served directly with the TGV. Regional trains go to the cities in the
vicinity such. B. Albi, Montauban, Foix or Auch.
By bus
Long-distance coaches travel to Toulouse from various German cities.
They stop at Gare routière (68, Boulevard Pierre Sémard), right next to
Matabiau train station. The journey from Berlin takes about 29 hours,
with changes in Cologne and Liège and various intermediate stops.
In the street
There are two routes to Toulouse from southern
Germany. The first leads through Burgundy, the Massif Central and
Montauban, but is not entirely on motorways. Alternatively, you can
drive via Lyon and Montpellier. From Switzerland it is advisable to
travel via Geneva and the Rhone Valley and then also via Montpellier.
Toulouse is surrounded by a toll-free ring road. From there you can
take the A61 to the Mediterranean, the A20 north to Quercy and the A62
to Bordeaux.
By bicycle
Toulouse is on the Canal des deux mers
long-distance cycle route, which connects Bordeaux with the
Mediterranean Sea. The path leads along the Garonne to Toulouse and from
there along the Canal du Midi to Agde.
In Toulouse there are two metro lines (A, B) and two tram lines (T1
and T2). These run in the relation Garossos-Aéroconstellation to Palais
de Justice (T1) and Aéroport to Palais de Justice (T2). There are
S-Bahn-like rail lines operated by SNCF, one of which has the letter C.
The city also has an extensive bus network.
The tram runs every
15 minutes during rush hour, on the Palais de Justice-Ancely section the
tram runs every 7.5 minutes. The Métro runs in the HVZ about every 2
minutes.
In addition, "VélôToulouse" offers 253 rental bike
stations throughout the city. The annual subscriptions are very cheap
and allow you to use a bike from the stations for half an hour at any
time without extra charge. Then you bring it back to any station.
However, it is also possible to rent a bike at a reasonable price
without registering in advance with VélôToulouse. If you don't have a
subscription, you can simply rent a bike with your credit card or the
"Carte Bleue".
Toulouse, known by the name of Tolose, was an important Gallic city
then located eight kilometers south at Vieille-Toulouse. Here 106 v. the
robbery of gold from Tolosa by Quintus Servilius Caepio. From that point
on, Toulouse became an important city of the Roman Empire and Tolosa
(Latin). It was the capital of the province of Gallia Narbonensis
between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and had between 20,000 and
50,000 inhabitants. Around the year 8 B.C. BC the inhabitants were
resettled, presumably on Roman orders, to the site of today's town
centre. From the 4th century Toulouse was the seat of the Archdiocese of
Toulouse. Numerous streets in downtown Toulouse still follow the layout
of the Roman settlement.
In 413 Toulouse became part of the
Visigoth Empire. The western and central parts of the Visigoth royal
palace were partially excavated in 1988 under the Larrey hospital. The
west wing alone had a floor area of 90×30 m. Sidonius Apollinaris
described the complex. In 418 the Visigoths made a pact with the Roman
emperor. In 507, after the defeat of the Visigoths by the Franks, the
Visigoth kingdom of Toulouse came to an end. In 721, the city was
unsuccessfully besieged by Arabs for several months in the Battle of
Toulouse. Between 781 and 843, Toulouse was the seat of the Kingdom of
Aquitaine, after which the independent County of Toulouse was founded.
During this time, the city was the center of Languedoc culture.
1208 called Pope Innocent III. after the assassination of his legate
Pierre de Castelnau, he embarked on a crusade against the Albigensians,
during which the city was sacked. In 1228, after a grueling and
destructive war of almost 20 years, Count Raymond VII of Toulouse gave
up the resistance and signed the Treaty of Paris (1229).
In 1271,
the county of Toulouse came under the rule of the French crown, but
retained some special rights. From 1444 to 1790, Toulouse was the seat
of the Parlement de Toulouse, which was responsible for most of southern
France and exercised legislative, judicial and executive powers there on
behalf of the crown. In particular, as a court of appeal, it decided in
the last instance all civil proceedings (in written proceedings) and all
criminal proceedings (in oral proceedings).
During the
Renaissance (around 1450 to 1550), Toulouse was one of the richest
cities in France. Dyer's woad, or pastel (Isatis tinctoria), a plant
that at the time provided the only permanent blue dye, thrived
particularly well on the chalky soils of the Lauragais, south-east of
the city. Important secular buildings of the pastel wholesalers in the
Renaissance style, such as the Hôtel d'Assézat or the Hôtel de Bernuy,
were built at this time. The city's market dominance gradually ended
after 1550, when the Portuguese began importing the cheaper indigo from
their colonies.
Although many Protestants lived in Toulouse at
the time of the Reformation, the city sided with the Roman Catholic side
during the Wars of Religion. In 1562 around 4,000 Huguenots were
murdered.
On April 10, 1812, a meteor shower occurred near
Toulouse. A number of fragments of an H5 chondrite were found in the
fields around the city. The meteorite was officially registered under
the name of Toulouse.
Toulouse hardly took part in the
industrialization of France in the 19th century. In 1856 it was
connected to the French railway network. The city grew and changed with
the construction of the great boulevards such as rue Alsace-Lorraine and
rue de Metz. In 1875 Toulouse was flooded by the Garonne.
With
the founding of the aircraft works by Pierre-Georges Latécoère in 1917,
Toulouse became an important location for the French aircraft industry.
Toulouse today has a technology park and is considered the aviation and
space capital of France.
In 2001 there was a devastating
explosion at the fertilizer nitrogen manufacturer AZF, which killed 31
and injured 2,500, destroyed large parts of the factory and caused
considerable damage in the south-west of the city. The bang of the
explosion could be heard up to 40 kilometers away.
In 2012, seven
people were killed in a series of attacks in Toulouse and the
surrounding area.