Figeac

Figeac is a common French, located in the department of the Lot and the area the Midday-Pyrenees.

The inhabitants are the Figeacois and the Figeacoises .

Geography

Located on Right Bank of the That, with the outlet of the Auvergne and the Top Quercy, built in Amphitheater on the slopes of the puy Sainte-Marie.

Heraldic

Blazon of the town of Figeac. Of azure to the money cross.

The pilgrimage of Compostelle

Figeac is on the Via Podiensis Pèlerinage of Saint-Jacques-of-Compostelle coming from Saint Felix or of Saint-Jean-Mirabel, and before Béduer, and its Château of Barasc.

Figeac had a Saint-Jacob hospital.

History

A flight of doves, drawing a cross in the sky, under the eyes of Pip the Brief, decided, according to the legend, of the foundation, in these places, of a monastery, in 753. A miracle while calling another, in 755, the pope Etienne II, come to bless the church, saw Jesus itself escorted by angels, to come to devote the monastery. At all events, the place was already inhabited in the Antiquité. A Roman way crossed to it That with ford and one found remainders of walls and sarcophagi Gallo-Roman.

As for the abbey, founded in 838, after the plundering of the monastery by the Viking S, located well on the ways of Compostelle and Rocamadour, it thrived and involved quickly the development of an agglomeration. Problems of authority being raised between the consuls and the abbot, Figeac passed under the dependence of Philippe Beautiful the in 1302. The king granted the rare privilege to him to beat the currency. Thanks to a prosperous craft industry, the city grows rich.

With the service of the English, Bernardon of the Room seized in 1372 it but gave up it the following year. Figeac accepted the visit of the king Louis XI in 1463. In 1536, the abbey was secularized. The wars of religion found the city divided. Jeanne de Genouillac, girl of Galiot, lord of Assier, worked to gain the population with the new faith. In 1576 the armies protesting be seized Figeac. The hill of Puy was transformed into fortified town. The edict of Nantes left the city to the Protestants and it is not that after the fall of Montauban, in 1622, that Louis XIII made dismantle the citadel.

The 18th century was one boom during which the defensive walls as well as the ditches disappeared. The Révolution saw the guillotine making fall five heads, places Reason. The marshal Ney hid in Figeac, little before its arrest.

The May 12th 1944, in repression with harassings of resistant the quercynois, the Germans of the the 2nd division S Das Reich off-set 800 Figeacois.

Administration

|- | align=right| 1977 - 2001 |||| Martin Malvy ||align=" center" | PS || President of the Midday-Pyrenees District council |- | align=right| since 2001 || ||Nicole Paulo||align=" center" | PS || General adviser

  • Figeac belongs since 1997 to the Community of communes of the Country of Figeac-Cajarc which includes/understands 28 common members, and 18  748 inhabitants (in 2000).

  • the former mayor of Figeac Martin Malvy was Minister for Energy and the Budget under the presidency of François Mitterrand and became president of the District council the Midday-Pyrenees in 1998.

Demography

Economy

Teaching

Champollion college

The College Champollion de Figeac is a publicly-owned establishment which proposes several lesson: general, technological, professional and in alternation. Approximately 1100 pupils are provided education for in this college and 150 professors teach there.

IUT

Since 1995, thanks to the support of the president of the district council, Martin Malvy, the town of Figeac has a university establishment of higher education. What makes of Figeac more the university small town of France. The technological Academic institute is attached to the university of Toulouse II Mirail. With the re-entry of September 2004, 315 students were registered in the establishment. The mechanical department engineering and computer-integrated manufacturing (GMP) were the first to be opened in 1995. It trains students called quite naturally to be integrated in industrial fabric of the Mecanic valley which goes from Rodez to Brive and whose Figeac is one of the pivots. Many continues their studies, for the best, in school of engineer. The technical department of marketing (TC) supplemented the offer of formation in 1997. They are increasingly numerous to continue their studies in professional license; IUT or school of engineer. Lastly, since the re-entry 2001, a third department came to be added. It is about a department social careers (CS), option social and sociocultural animation. This training given by some rare IUT (13 on the whole), attracts a great number of students of all the corners of France. Following its growing success, the IUT of Figeac increased in 2006, in order to accommodate a greater number of students.

Tourist monuments and places

Figeac is classified town of art and history. The old city kept its plan and his tortuous lanes of the Moyen-âge and one can see there many old houses in sandstone, like the mint of the 13th century, converted into museum, the Château of Balène, medieval fortress, and today center of Contemporary art, or the hotel of Auglanat of the 15th century.

Monk

The church Saint-Saver

This church, remains abbey which was attached to Cluny at the end of the 11th century, was devoted in 1092. Saint Hugues was the abbot. Although very modified during the centuries, either because of embellishments, or because of the damage caused by the One hundred Year old wars or Religion, it preserves nevertheless proud pace.

It is a church of Pèlerinage, similar by its dimensions to Saint-Cernin of Toulouse or Holy-Foy of Conches, equipped with triple Nef, of a vast transept, a déambulatoire and an apse with radiating chapels. The old chapter house is decorated with polychrome wood of the 17th century.

The Notre-Dame church of Puy

Named well, since it dominates any Figeac, on the place of Foirail. This church of Romance origin was several times altered, in particular with and 17th centuries, when the three central spans were joined together in only one; the chorus contains beautiful carved Romance capitals and a large retable in drowning, gone back to 1696. It is however the oldest parish of Figeac, born, according to the tradition, of a miracle: Vierge would have made there flower a rose tree in winter.

It was the seat of a brotherhood Saint-Jacob.

Champollion museum

The city shelters the museum Champollion " writings of the world ". More than 6000 visitors per annum can discover through the collections how the writing has appeared in the world for 5000 years.

In 1986, the museum was inaugurated thanks to the efforts of the town of Figeac in the honor of Jean-François Champollion which had succeeded in translating the Hiéroglyphes. The museum was installed in the native house of the Egyptologist which was thus saved destruction and was restored. The entry was done by the place of the writings (see following chapter).

In August 1999, the city engages a programme of restoration and extension of the museum. The joists begin on October 3rd, 2005. It buys the close houses. More than four million Euros were financed by Europe (29,84%), the State (22,34%), the area (25%), the department (2,43%) and the town of Figeac (20,39%). The architect Alain Moatti was in charge of the design of the project.

The new museum opened its doors on July 28th, 2007. Its " frontage with the 1000 letters " , made up of stone, glass and metal, the access to the museum by the Champollion place allows. The graphic designer Pierre di Sciullo presents to it Hiéroglyphes and other signs through large openwork copper sheets.

Inside, a shop allows the purchase of reproductions of old objects: papyrus, Pierre de Rosette…

The place of the Writings

Enchased in a medieval architectural unit, its ground is covered with an immense reproduction of the Pierre de Rosette (14 X 7 m), carved in black granite of the Zimbabwe by the American conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth. Inaugurated in April 1991, this important work contemporary also requires to be contemplated since the hanging garden which dominates the place. In an contiguous air shaft, the translation in French of the inscriptions is engraved on a glass plate.

The Carnot place

Old place of the Market, it is surrounded by imposing houses, some in cob, with the wrought iron balconies, under the roofs open covered galleries, the soleilhos.

Pierre Cisteron (1589-1684?) arms manufacturer of Louis XIV lived a house with turret of the 15th century which occupies the angle of the place.

Activities

Festivals take place each year, the multi-field Missing link festival “artists into discovered” who takes place in spring, then the theatrical Festival of Figeac directed by Marcel Maréchal in July, and the musical Rencontres of Figeac in August.

Famous characters

Stage


Twinnings

References

Random links:Direction of the monitoring of the territory | Poppers | Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS) | Fayaoué | Lark 1 | 1953