Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/505

Rh south of the city lies the palais de justice, near which are the ancient church of the Inquisition and several of the finest houses in Toulouse. Going northwards, the traveller passes the 6glise de la Dalbade on his way towards the Pont Neuf, immediately to the north of which is the glise de la Daurade. North of this church, but somewhat farther from the river, is the military hospital, to the immediate east of which lie the lycee, the church of the Jacobins, and the public library. South-east from this, about half way towards the cathedral, is the museum. North of the military hospital and beyond the Rue Pargaminiere lie the arsenal and the Faubourg St Pierre. Slightly to the north west of the Pont St Pierre the Canal de Brienne (finished 1778) cuts across the angle formed by the Garonne and Canal du Midi. Between the Canal de Brienne and the Garonne is the chief manufacturing part of the city, where the great Bazacle flour-mill stands. Along the right bank of the river run the various quays of St Pierre, &c. In the Faubourg St Cyprien, just north of the Pont Neuf, is the Hotel Dieu St Jacques, said to have been founded before the 12th century, with its large gardens. Close to the Pont St Pierre is the hospital of St Joseph de la Grave, which makes up 1432 beds, and affords shelter to found lings and the aged. South of the Allee St Michel is the Jardin des Plantes, founded by the ill-fated La Perouse.

The most interesting building is the church of St Sernin or Saturninus, whom legend represents as the first preacher of the gospel in Toulouse, where he was perhaps martyred towards the middle of the 3d century. The oldest part of the present building was consecrated by Urban II. in 1096. This church is now the largest edifice of southern France, being 375 feet from east to west and 217 feet in its utmost breadth. The nave (12th and 13th centuries) is remarkable for having double aisles. Four pillars, sup porting the central tower, are surrounded by heavy masonry, which somewhat spoils the general harmony of the interior. In the southern transept is the "portail des corates," so named because near it lie the tombs of William Taillefer, Pons, and other early counts of Toulouse. The little chapel in which these tombs (ascribed to the 11th century) are found was restored by the capitols of Toulouse in 1648. Another chapel contains a Byzantine Christ of late 11th-century workmanship. The choir (11th and 12th centuries) ends in an apse, or rather chevet, surrounded by a range of columns, marking off an aisle which in its turn opens into five chapels. The stalls are of 16th-century work and very grotesquely carved. Against the northern wall is an ancient table d'autel, which an 11th-century inscription declares to have belonged to St Sernin. In the crypts are many relics, which, however, were robbed of their gold and silver shrines during the Revolution. The finest gate is on the south, and is surmounted by a fine representation of the Ascension in Byzantine style. The capitals of the St Sernin pillars are sometimes ornamented with leaves and sometimes with grotesque animals, &c. The belfry consists of five stories, of which the two highest are of later date, but harmonize very well with the three lower ones. The cathedral, dedicated to St Stephen, dates from three different epochs. The nave, commenced by Raymond VI. towards the beginning of the 13th century, still displays the sculptm-ed arms of its founder, and a few years ago preserved the pulpit in which St Bernard and St Dominic are said to have preached. The choir, commenced by Bertrand de Lille (c. 1272), was burned in 1609, but restored in the same century. It is sur rounded by seventeen chapels, which were finished by the Cardinal d Orleans, nephew of Louis XI, towards the beginning of the 16th century. These chapels are adorned with glass dating from the 15th to the 17th century. The great western gate was constructed by Peter du Moulin, archbishop of Toulouse, from 1439 to 1451. It has been greatly battered, and presents but a poor approximation to its ancient beauty. Over this grand gate, which was once ornamented with the statues of St Sernin, St Exuperitis, and the twelve apostles, as well as those of the two brother archbishops of Toulouse, Denis (1423-1439) and Peter du Moulin, there is a beautiful 13th-century rose-window, whose centre, however, is not in a perpendicular line with the point of the Gothic arch below. In the same way the choir and the nave have not the same axis.

Among other remarkable churches may be noticed those of St Pierre des Cuisines (12th century), with its beautifully sculptured capitals; of Notre Dame de la Daurade, near the Pont Neuf, built on the site of a 9th-century Benedictine abbey, but reconstructed in 1764; and of Notre Dame de la Dalbade, perhaps existing in the 11th century but in its present form dating from the 15th. The Eglise des Jacobins, held by Viollet le Due to be " one of the most beautiful brick churches constructed in the Middle Ages," was built towards the end of the 13th century, and originally con sisted of but one structure divided into two aisles by a range of columns. It has a beautiful octagonal belfry. Before the Revolution it contained the mausoleum of Thomas Aquinas. On the left of the Garonne stands the church of St Nicholas, also with an octagonal belfry and a spire dating from the 15th century. There are many other churches of considerable antiquity.

Of secular buildings the most noteworthy are the capitole, the museum, and the lycee. The capitole (16th-17th centuries) has a long Ionic facade constructed by Cammas (1750-60). The theatre is situated in the left wing. Running along almost the whole length of the first floor is the " salle des illustres" adorned with the busts of forty-four great natives of Toulouse; the word " native " has, however, been construed very liberally. In the capitole the Academic des Jeux Floraux holds its annual meetings. The museum (opened 1795) occupies the church and other buildings of the Augustinian convent (14th-15th cent.). It contains a splendid collection of antiquities arranged in two cloisters, and a collection of pictures. The natural history museum is at the Jardin des Plantes. The lycee occupies the group of buildings known as "Les Jacobins," the Hotel Bernui (16th century), &c. Here is the public library (65,000 volumes).

Toulouse is singularly rich in mansions of the 16th and 17th centuries. Several of these are richly adorned by Bachelier, Michelangelo's pupil. The Hotels d Assezat, de St Jean, Las Bordes, Felzins, Duranti, and Maison de Pierre may be specially mentioned. A few houses are said to date from the 14th century or even earlier. Near the Allee St Michel is the palais de justice, the old meeting house of the parlement of Toulouse. Close by was the old Chateau Narbonnais.

Besides its university, which ranks next to those of Paris and Lyons, and has faculties of law, science, letters, and medicine, Toulouse possesses many educational and learned societies, among which may be mentioned the Ecole des Beaux Arts et des Sciences Industrielles, the Ecole Normale, the Ecole de Musique, the Aca demies des Jeux Floraux, des Sciences et des Belles Lettreset Arts, and de Legislation, the Societe d'Agriculture, and the archaeological Societe du Midi.

The geographical position of Toulouse, on the plain of Languedoc, has made it the chief entrepot of the district for wine, corn, and almost all the industries of the neighbourhood. Besides the grind ing of flour, its leading industries are cabinetmaking, hat-making, calico printing, the manufacture of pots and pans, macaroni, and starch, leather-making (morocco), cloth and paper making, glassblowing, saddlery, and pottery. The tobacco factory occupies 1250 hands, and manufactures 1000 tons of snuff, a corresponding quantity of tobacco, and 250 tons of cigars annually.

The population of the city, 127,196 in 1881, numbered 133,775 in 1886, that of the commune being 147,617.

Tolosa (Toaffffa), chief town of the Volcae Tectosages, does not seem to have been a place of great importance during the early centuries of the Roman rule in Gaul, though one incident in its early history gave rise to the famous Latin proverb "habet aurum Tolosanum (Aul. Cell., iiL c. 12). It was possessed of a circus and an amphitheatre, but its most remarkable remains are to be found on the heights of Old Toulouse (vetus Tolosa) some 6 or 7 miles to the east, where huge accumulations of broken pottery and fragments of an old earthen wall mark the site of an ancient settlement. The numerous coins that have been discovered on the same spot do not date back farther than the 2d century B.C., and seem to indicate the position of a Roman manufacturing centre then beginning to occupy the Gallic hill-fortress that, in earlier days, had in times of peril been the stronghold of the native tribes dwelling on the river bank. Tolosa does not seem to have been a Roman colony; but its importance must have increased greatly towards the middle of the 4th century. It is to be found entered in more than one itinerary dating from about this time; and Ausonius, in his Ordo Nobilium Urbium, alludes to it in terms implying that it then had a large population. In 419 it was taken by Wallia, king of the Visigoths, under whom or whose successors it became the seat of the great Teutonic kingdom of the West-Goths, a kingdom that within fifty years had extended itself from the Loire to Gibraltar and from the Rhone to the Atlantic. On the defeat of Alaric II. (507) Toulouse fell into the hands of Clovis, who carried away the royal treasures to Angouleme. Under the Merovingian kings it seems to have remained the greatest city of southern Gaul, and is said to have been governed by dukes or counts dependent on one or other of the rival kings descended from the great founder of the Frankish monarchy. It figures prominently in the pages of Gregory of Tours and Sidonius Apollinaris. About 628 Dagobert erected South Aquitaine into a kingdom for his brother Charibert, who chose Toulouse as his capital. For the next eighty years its history is obscure, till we reach the days of Charles Martel, when it was besieged by Sema, the leader of the Saracens from Spain (c. 715-20), but delivered by Eudo, "princeps Aquitaniffi," in whom later writers discovered the ancestor of all the later counts of Toulouse. Modern criticism, however, has discredited this genealogy;