Last modified: 2024-12-07 by olivier touzeau
Keywords: tarn-et-garonne | montauban |
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Montauban (61,919 inhabitants in 2021 on 13,135 ha) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department, of which it is the capital and the most populated town. Montauban, built mainly of a reddish brick, stands on the right bank of the Tarn at its confluence with the Tescou river.
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. In the 13th century the town suffered much from the ravages of the Albigensian war and from the Inquisition. By 1317 it was chosen by Pope 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. According to the legend, 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 (but on reality, these 400 shots could not be fired at the same time). Every year in September, the city celebrates "les 400 coups" (the 400 shots), which has become a common phrase in French. Montauban did not submit to royal authority until after the fall of La Rochelle in 1629.
The City reached its economic peak in the 18th century with its flour mills, its silk and wool weaving, its industrial dynamism is remarkable. At the same time, the population suffered the dragonnades (occupation of dragoon regiments with local residents, following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685)
In order to permanently reestablish Catholicism in the city, a new episcopal palace was built on the ruins of the castle of the Black Prince, a classical style cathedral in freestone, a Jesuit college (the Old College), and the church of Saint- Etienne de Sapiac. Montauban experienced a golden age and took on the face that still known today: the many classic style mansions in Toulouse brick, the Place Nationale (rebuilt in the current style after a fire in 1614), the digging of the Canal du Midi (then the Canal de Montech)...
During the revolutionary period, two personalities from Montauban enjoyed national notoriety in Paris: Olympe de Gouges, a woman of letters already under the Ancien R gime, claimed the rights of women and citizens, but launched attacks against Robespierre which led her to 'scaffold. Jeanbon Saint André, former Calvinist pastor, joins the Committee of Public Safety. On 27 Pluviôse Year II (February 15, 1794), he proposed, on behalf of the Committee of Public Safety, to replace the flag of the navy (white background stamped with the three colors in the canton) and to adopt the tricolor flag in three vertical bands of equal width, with the blue closed to the staff of the flag.
In 1808, Napoleon I created a new department, Tarn-et-Garonne, of which Montauban became the capital. The city stagnated economically and then experienced an industrial decline with strong competition from Flanders, England and Nord-Pas-de-Calais in the production of fabrics. After that, despite everything, Montauban benefited from the economic growth of the Second Empire and then of the Belle poque, Its old quarters were restored, and the city was modernized. On the banks of the Tarn (Villebourbon, Sapiac) the floods of 1766, 1870 and 1930 were particularly destructive while the old town, located high up, is not affected.
During the terrible winter of 1829, Indians from the Osage tribe arrived exhausted in Montauban, ending a wandering that had taken them across part of Europe for two and a half years. After weeks of wandering, the Osages were welcomed to Montauban by Bishop Louis-Guillaume Dubourg. A fundraiser was organized to allow them to return home and it is thanks to the generosity of the inhabitants of Montauban that the Osages saw their village again and told their odyssey. From one generation to another, this story has come down to the current Osages. In 1989 the Oklahoma-Occitania association regained contact with the tribe, which joined the cultural exchange project. A stele erected in the Jardin des Plantes de Montauban commemorates this renewed friendship
See: https://www.montauban-tourisme.com/decouvrir/parcs-jardins-2/jardin-des-plantes/montauban-et-les-osages/
In 1851, Ingres, famous French Neoclassical painter, at 71 years of age, gave part of his collection, including copies, work of pupils, and Greek vases, as a gift to the city of his birth. The Ingres room was inaugurated in 1854. The death of Ingres in January 1867 led to a considerable enrichment of the collection with additional works, in particular several thousands of drawings. The Musée Ingres nowadays comprises most of the work of Ingres, and also some sculptures by famous sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, another native of Montauban, as well as collections of antiquities (Greek vases) and 18th and 19th ceramics.
From the end of 1936, a few hundred Spanish refugee families landed in Montauban to flee the civil war, thousands of Republicans passed through Villebourbon station before reaching the Septfonds camp. In this procession, Manuel Aza a, President of the Spanish Republic, after escaping the Gestapo near Pyla, arrived in an ambulance in Montauban. Finally placed under house arrest in a room at the Hôtel du Midi at the request of the Vichy government, Aza a, who was refused exile in Mexico, died of exhaustion on November 3, 1940.
In 1940, several tens of thousands of refugees from all over Northern Europe, and in particular Belgian subjects, arrived. Among these refugees, there was also... Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci who escaped looting and found refuge with a whole part of the collections of the Louvre and the Versailles museum in the thick walls of the Ingres museum.
In the spring of 1944, part of the 4th SS regiment "Der F hrer" of the Das Reich division was stationed there, before being called to Normandy and committing numerous abuses and massacres on the way, including that of Oradour-sur-Glane. While several attacks were taking place around Montauban, the Nazis were ordered to leave the city to return to the North of France and flee as quickly from Montauban, August 17, 1944. At the same time a German column of 400 men arrives from Cahors where it was attacked by resistance fighters; it was heading for Toulouse. On August 19 in the middle of the afternoon, these Nazi soldiers arrived in Montauban, while a crowd was already celebrating the departure of the German troops until then stationed in the city; the inhabitants barricaded themselves again in an emergency. Around 3 p.m., the German column was stopped by gunfire. From their windows the inhabitants shooted at them. The guerrillas then arrived as reinforcements. At the end of the afternoon, the Occupation troops went on the attack with violent mortar fire before wiping out grapeshot from an Allied plane in Toulouse. The Nazis were forced to retreat as night fell.
In the 1950/60ies, new outlying districts of housing estates and residences were built to the east.
The Toulouse and Montauban shootings were a series of Islamist terrorist attacks committed in March 2012 in the cities of Montauban and Toulouse. 3 French Army soldiers were targeted in Montauban, as well as children and teachers at a Jewish school 4 days later in Toulouse.
Olivier Touzeau, 18 August 2023
The arms of Montauban are blasonned: Gules a willow tree couped in chief with six leafless branches Or, a chief Azure three fleurs de lis Or.
The current logo of Montauban was adopted in 2010, showing the iconic
Pont-Vieux (bridge on the Tarn river) and the episcopal palace,
included in the shape of an apple (many appleorchards are seen around
Montauban). The logo of the ity van be observed on a flag showing the support of the city for the Union sportive montalbanaise.
No municipal flag observed for years.
Olivier Touzeau, 18 August 2023
![[Flag]](../images/f/fr-82-mt.gif)
![[Flag]](../images/f/fr-82-mt2.gif)
Former flags reported in Montauban - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 18 August 2023
According to French vexillologist Pascal Vagnat [source: emblemes.free.fr],
a white flag with logo had been reported with a logo described as "a
blue letter M with three white stripes" (source: email from Mr. J.-L.
Lapart dated December 14, 2005).
I have not found any representation of this logo.
According to the same source, "the flag of Montauban is made up of a vertical blue stripe at the pole and two horizontal red and yellow stripes. The colors come from the coat of arms. This flag has been used for several decades."
Another flag of Montauban (older?) was formed of three vertical bands blue, yellow and red. The colors come from the coat of arms. Source: "Weer zomaar 2 notities van A.J. Beenhakker", in: Vexilla Nostra n°52, volume 8, 1973, p.17. Pascal Vagnat shows this flag [source: emblemes.free.fr] with horizontal stripes.
Olivier Touzeau, 18 August 2023
The article is headed 'Weer zomaar 2 notities van A.J. Beenhakker' It consists of the info on Montauban, and on Pierre, South Dakota. The Montauban section simply says, 'Montauban (Frankrijk): evenlange banen B-Y-R.' There are no illustrations, nor a note of the sources, whether personal observation or archival research.The Flag Institute Library's copy also has an anonymous hand-written insert, which translates the title as 'Another two flag notes by A.J. Beenhakker, and the first entry [about Montauban] as 'vertical stripes B-Y-R'.
Ian Sumner, 20 August 2023