Limoges

Limoges is known worldwide for its medieval enamels ('Limoges enamels') on copper and for its 19th century porcelain ('Limoges porcelain'.

Limoges was the bithplace of:

• Jean Daurat (or Dorat) (1508-1588), poet and scholar, member of the Pléiade
• Thomas Robert Bugeaud de la Piconnerie, Duke of Isly (1784-1849), marshal of France
• Marie François Sadi Carnot (1837-1894), President of France
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), preeminent French painter

History. A brand-new city in the first century BCE, Augustoritum occupied an important crossroads. It was provided with an arena meant to outshine those at Arles or Nimes. Saint Martial proselytized the area and was memorialized in the Abbey, which became rich through its pilgrimage traffic, gained its independence from the bishop of Limoges in the 9th century, and became famous for its library, the second largest in France after Cluny and scriptorium, and as one of the birthplaces of polyphonic music.

The dual structure of medieval Limoges was often at cross purposes. The city, headed by the Bishop, centered round the Cathedral and the Bishop's residence. The walled and moated chateau of the Viscounts of Limoges stood near the walled abbey.

The city of Limoges was famous in the Middle Ages for its enamels on copper, which were exported throughout Christendom.

In 1771 kaolinic clay, the fine white clay indispensable for making hard-paste porcelain, was discovered at Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche, near Limoges. Under the impetus of the progressive economist Turgot, who had been appointed intendant of this impoverished and isolated region, a new ceramics industry was developed, and Limoges porcelain became famous during the 19th century.

The CGT trade union was founded in Limoges, 1890.

Limoges was a center of the maquis resistance to the Vichy puppet government of the Nazis.

A small University was founded at Limoges in 1968.

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