Tulle

Beginning

Initially, the Gauls settled an oppidum at the site of what is now the Puy St Clair because it was a site surrounded by cliffs and so easy to get off. After the conquest, the city moved downwards, to the Trech district and the Romans established a temple to honor Tutela, goddess of protection of property and persons. The name of the city comes from this goddess. She was honoured here because it was a ford over the Corrèze where passed a very old road between Brittany and the Mediterranean sea. In the seventh century was built a monastery dedicated to St. Michael. The local population settled around the buildings. The first monastery, destroyed by the Viking invasions in 846, was rebuilt but disappeared in the eleventh century.

Middle Ages

New construction was built, and Pope Urban II, who was in Tulle in 1095, grants protection. The first stone of the new abbey was laid in 1130; the building was not completed until two centuries later. In 1317, Pope John XXII created the Diocese of Tulle; the abbey became a cathedral.

During the Hundred Years' War, the English took the city in 1346 and are driven from the city by the local militia, the city falls again in 1369, but English are finally expelled by the local militia again. The city was pillaged by Rodrigo de Villandrando during this time and the Black Death also affected the city but according to legend, St. Clair healed people (St. Clair is now a big fair in honour of the miracle).

Modern period

The abbey was almost abandoned with the secularization of 1514. During the wars of religion, Tulle was for Catholics, the city resisted the first time against the Huguenots in 1577, but the troops of the Vicomte de Turenne took a bloody revenge in 1585. They put the city in sackcloth and devastation, after an assault that the Protestant poet Agrippa d'Aubigne recounted.

Mutilation and looting were much more severe during the Revolution: the cathedral and the abbey buildings were converted into munitions factory, all fittings, including iron retaining the dome for recovery were torn, causing the collapse of the dome of the apse, the transept and the north gallery of the cloister. The church was reopened for worship in 1803, but only regained its title of cathedral in 1823.

Contemporary era

From 1917 to 1922, Tulle was in the spotlight of the French press because of a news item. Over 100 anonymous letters were sent, denouncing all the secrets of the inhabitants of the city. The sender was actually Angele Laval, a spurned and insane woman. This fact inspired Clouzot for his film Le Corbeau and Cocteau for his play La Machine à écrire.

Massacre by the Waffen SS in 1944

During the Second World War, the 2nd SS Division Das Reich division of the Waffen SS perpetrated a reprisal massacre of civilians in Tulle, following the killing and maiming of some 40 German soldiers in Tulle on 8 June 1944 by the Maquis resistance movement.

On 9 June 1944 a large number of male civilians were rounded up by the SS. Of these, 97 were randomly selected and then hanged from lamp posts and balconies in the town. Additionally, another 321 captives were sent to forced labour camps in Germany where 101 lost their lives. In total, the actions of the Wehrmacht, the Waffen-SS, and the SD claimed the lives of 213 civilian residents of Tulle.

Tulle Prison and the Algerian War

In the last stages of the Algerian War and its aftermath, four military officers involved in instigating a failed coup aimed at deposing President de Gaulle were held in the prison at Tulle. De Gaulle referred at the time to "those idiotic generals playing ball in Tulle Prison". The four were Raoul Salan, Edmond Jouhaud, Maurice Challe and André Zeller. The last of them to be released was Salan, amnestied on 15 June 1968 in the wake of "The Events" of May 1968.

Economy

Tulle's role as a centre for lace making is highlighted by an "international lace festival" held each August. The town is also home to the Maugein accordion factory, which once employed 200, though this figure is now much reduced. Near to this there was, till recently, a significant armaments manufacturing business, but its site is now (2011) marked only by an armaments museum.

Located in another part of town is a car parts plant owned by the American Borg-Warner company, and employing approximately 300 people.

Government

Mayors

Mayors of Tulle since 1949 were:

Politics

Tulle's MP in the National Assembly of France for nearly 15 years was the Socialist François Hollande, who was elected President of the Republic in 2012. Hollande also served as mayor of the town.

Population

Education

Arts and festivals

Museums

Sport

The municipality has established an ambitious policy for sport in the early 2000s, which enabled it in 2008 to become the most sporting town in France. For example the town has an association football team called Tulle Foot Corrèze who concentrate on youth and first team opportunities.

Media

Tulle hosts several medias:

International relations

Tulle is twinned with:

Personalities

Tulle is the birthplace of:

The following people have resided in Tulle: