Limoges is a city and commune in France, the préfecture of the Haute-Vienne département,
and the administrative capital of the Limousin région.
Limoges is known for its medieval enamels (Limoges enamels) on copper,
for its 19th century porcelain (Limoges porcelain) and for its oak barrels (Limousin oak),
which are used for Cognac production.
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Limoges
LIMOGES is not a city that calls for a
long stay, but it is worth a look for a magnificent train station
and the craft industries that made the city a household name:
enamel in the Middle Ages and, since the eighteenth century,
china, including some of the finest ever produced. If these appeal,
then the city's unique museum collections - and its Gothic cathedral
- will reward a visit. But it has to be said that the industry
today seems a spent tradition, hard hit by recession and changing
tastes among the rich. The local kaolin (china clay) mines that
gave Limoges china its special quality are exhausted, and the
workshops survive mainly on the tourist trade.
The Cathédrale St-Étienne , a landmark for miles
around, was begun in 1273 and planned on the model of the cathedral
of Amiens, though only the choir, completed
in the early thirteenth century, is pure Gothic. The rest of
the building was added piecemeal over the centuries, the western
part of the nave not until 1876. The most striking external feature
is the sixteenth-century facade of the north transept, built
in full Flamboyant style with elongated arches, clusters of pinnacles
and delicate tracery in window and gallery. At the west end of
the nave, the tower, erected on a Romanesque base that had to
be massively reinforced to bear the weight, has octagonal upper
storeys, in common with most churches in the region. It once
stood as a separate campanile and probably looked the better
for it. Inside, the effects are much more pleasing, and the rose
stone looks warmer than on the weathered exterior. The sense
of soaring height is accentuated by all the upward-reaching lines
of the pillars, the net of vaulting ribs, the curling, flame-like
lines repeated in the arcading of the side chapels and the rose
window, and, above all, as you look down the nave, by the narrower
and more pointed arches of the choir.
The best of the city's
museums - with its showpiece collections of enamelware dating
back as far as the twelfth century - is the Musée
Municipal de l'Évêché (June daily except Tues 10-11.45am & 2-6pm;
July-Sept daily 10-11.45am & 2-6pm; Oct-May daily except
Tues 10-11.45am & 2-5pm; free) in the old bishop's palace
next to the cathedral. There's an interesting progression to
be observed in the museum, from the simple, sober, Byzantine-influenced
champlevé (copper filled with enamel), to the later, especially
seventeenth- and eighteenth-century work that used a far greater
range of colours and indulged in elaborate virtuoso portraiture.
By the nineteenth century, however, the spirit and vigour had
dissipated, and although there are contemporary artisans in the
city using the medium, their work, too - judging from this display
- is not much more successful. There is also an exhibition of
the wartime Resistance (June daily except Tues 10-11.45am &
2-6pm; July to mid-Sept daily 10-11.45am & 2-6pm; rest of
year daily except Tues 2-5pm; free) housed in an outbuilding
opposite the museum's main entrance.
Outside, if the weather
is good, the well-laid-out and interesting botanical garden (daily
sunrise to sunset; free) is an inviting prospect, descending
gracefully towards the River Vienne. In the garden's northern
corner an old refectory now houses the excellent Cité
des Métiers et des Arts (June & Sept daily 2-6.30pm;
July & Aug daily 11am-6.30pm; rest of year Wed, Sat &
Sun 2-6pm; 25F/?3.81) displaying pieces - mostly carpentry -
by France's top crafts' guild members.
Over to the west of the
cathedral is the partly renovated old quarter of the town. Make
your way through to rue de la Boucherie, for a thousand years
the domain of the butchers' guild, and today featuring several
good restaurants. The dark, cluttered chapel of St-Aurélien
, with a delicate fourteenth-century cross outside, belongs to
them, while one of their former shophouses makes an interesting
little museum, the Maison de la Boucherie , at no. 36 (July to
mid-Sept daily 10am-1pm & 3-7pm; free). At the top of the
street is the market in place de la Motte and, to the right,
partly hidden by adjoining houses, the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century
church of St-Michel-des-Lions , named after the two badly weathered
Celtic lions guarding the south door and topped by one of the
best towers and spires in the region. The inside is dark and
atmospheric, with two beautiful, densely coloured fifteenth-century
windows either side of the choir, one of which - in the south
aisle - depicts the Tree of Jesse.
From place de la Motte,
rue du Clocher leads to rue Jean-Jaurès, with the post
office a couple of blocks up to the left. Straight across, rue
St-Martial leads past place de la République - where the
fourth-century crypt of the long-vanished Abbey of St-Martial
(July-Sept daily 9.30am-noon & 2.30-7pm; free), containing
the saint's massive sarcophagus, was discovered during building
operations in the 1960s - to the church of St-Pierre-du-Queyroix
under another typically Limousin belfry. The interior, partly
twelfth-century (the exterior was remodelled in the sixteenth
century), gains a sombre strength from the massive round pillars
which still support the roof. Like the cathedral, it has a slightly
pink granite glow. There is more fine stained glass here, including
a fine window at the end of the south aisle depicting the Dormition
of the Virgin, signed by the great enamel artist Jean Pénicault
in 1510.
Limoges is renowned the
world over for its porcelain, a craft well represented in the
Musée Adrien-Dubouché (daily except Tues: July
& Aug 10am-5.45pm; rest of year 10am-12.30pm & 2-5.45pm),
west of the old quarter on place Winston-Churchill. The collection
includes samples of the local product and china displays from
around the world, as well as various celebrity services ordered
for the likes of Napoléon Bonaparte, Charles and Di, and
sundry French royals. The exhibits are well laid out, with explanatory
panels describing the processes for making the different wares,
and form a much more interesting display than you might expect.
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