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Tours contents
Introduction
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History,
part 1
History,
part 2
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But bad times come always
after good times! Now the Normans!! Not having the high degree of culture that
the Arabs had, and this is a euphemism, they looted, burnt down the cathedral
and the churches. In the 13th century Touraine is now part of the crown
possessions and the fiscal system, redone and relegislated by the king, reducing
local power. This is the beginning of a long period of economic prosperity of
Tours. The new mint, coined by Saint-Louis, "la livre tournois" will
supplant the "livre parisis" during eight centuries!!
The decision of Louis XI, ruling from 1461 to 1483 to choose Tours as capital of
the kingdom (in the chateau de Plessis) and the fact that Touraine didn’t have
to complain about the royal spending in the chateaux de la Loire, enriched Tours
beyond belief. Between 1440 and 1552 craftsmanship and commercial activities
had a big boom. The number of population grew from 9,000 to 12, 000, artists
came from all over the country, commerce, printing and gold-jewellery were in
full motion.
Louis XI, liking good food and wine (like we all) but having money problems, has
a "brilliant idea". After having in a first time advantaged the silk
industry in Lyon he changes his mind and tries to implant it in Touraine by
giving the order to plant mulberry-trees north of Saint-Martin and transfers to
Tours the silk workers and their silk looms chased from Lyon. By the usual way
of “bakchich “ to rich manufactures he cashes money and let things go their
way. It’s ironically that the same city of Lyon will be the one to reattract
the silk and weaving industry from Touraine in the 18th century. But the prosperity of the city continues until the 17th city: superb
Renaissance hotels are built as well as numerous chateaux in the countryside
around. But the religious disputes led in 1562 to violent incidents and three
hundred Protestants are thrown and drowned in the Loire after these same
Protestants had partly burnt down the St.Martin Church.
After the 17th century the city undergoes a demographic fall. Tours becomes a
little provincial town as many others. Repetitive floods during the 189th
century didn’t ameliorate the situation, but illustrious personages as Balzac,
Vigny, Courteline, having decided to live here, kept an intellectual and
artistic vitality to the city.
WW II was a very bad time for Tours. With their German non-invited visitors they
had some quarrel, which ended with the famous and heavy "Bataille de la
Loire". On June 16 1940, the Teutons try to take Tours. Heavy bombardments,
fires spread around and destroy a good part of the old city center. (quote):
After the war, the architects entrusted with the
reconstruction have as major priority to build houses to lodge the inhabitants.
This explains the absence of aesthetic and artistic research in the facades
without any charm lined up in the actual rue Nationale and adjacent streets
(unquote)
But in the last decades the city developed at all levels: urban, economically,
culturally and artistically. The "old Tours" was renovated without
making it look as a museum but a lively quarter, day and night, with shops,
commerces, cafes and residents.
Bibliography
Regions Gourmandes: Les pays de la Loire, by
H.Walden (Paris, ed.Hatier 1993)—Guide du Patrimoine, Centre, Val de Loire ,
by Perouse de Montclos (ed.Hachette 1992)—Het dal van de Loire, by A.Sperber
(Brussels, ed.Harenberg 1992)—Par les champs et par les greves, by G.Flaubert
(1885)—Guide du Routard 1998 (ed.Hachette)—de kastelen van Frankrijk, by
L.P.Boon (1956)
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