MONTAUBAN / MONTALBAN. A walking tour around the city / Un paseo por la ciudad

Описание: MONTAUBAN (Occitan: MONTALBAN) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Occitanie region in southern France. It is the capital of the department and lies 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, and the sixth most populated of Occitanie.

The town has been classified “Ville d’art et d’histoire” (City of art and history) since 2015.

The town, built mainly of a reddish brick, stands on the right bank of the Tarn at its confluence with the Tescou.

Montauban is the second oldest (after Mont-de-Marsan) of the bastides of southern France. Its foundation dates from 1144 when Count Alphonse Jourdain of Toulouse, granted it a liberal charter. The inhabitants were drawn chiefly from Montauriol, a village which had grown up around the neighbouring monastery of St Théodard.

In the 13th century the town suffered much from the ravages of the Albigensian war and from the Inquisition, but by 1317 it had recovered sufficiently to be chosen by John XXII as the head of a diocese of which the basilica of St Théodard became the cathedral.

In 1360, under the Treaty of Brétigny, it was ceded to the English; they were expelled by the inhabitants in 1414. In 1560 the bishops and magistrates embraced Protestantism, expelled the monks, and demolished the cathedral. Ten years later it became one of the four Huguenot strongholds under the Peace of Saint-Germain, and formed a small independent republic. It was the headquarters of the Huguenot rebellion of 1621, and successfully withstood an 86-day siege by Louis XIII. It did not submit to royal authority until after the fall of La Rochelle in 1629, when its fortifications were destroyed by Cardinal Richelieu. The Protestants again suffered persecution after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

In the 17th century, the King of France revoked “l’Édit de Nantes”. Montauban was considered as an intellectual city. Because Montauban was a Protestant town, it started to resist and hold its position against the royal power and it refused to give allegiance to the Catholic King. To scare off the King’s opponents and speed up the end of the siege, 400 cannonballs were fired, but Montauban resisted and the royal army was vanquished. Saint Jacques church is still marked by the cannonballs, and every year in September, the city celebrates “les 400 coups” (the 400 shots), which has become a common phrase in French.

During World War II, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was briefly hidden in a secret vault behind a wine cellar at Montauban.