Limoges-Bénédictins station

Limoges-Bénédictins (French: Gare de Limoges-Bénédictins) is the main railway station of Limoges. It is situated on the Orléans–Montauban railway. It was named Bénédictins due to the presence of a Benedictine monastery closed during the French Revolution.

1. History

The CF du PO opened the first railway line in the city in the 1850s. The first station, built of wood, opened on 16 June 1856. The first stone-built station opened in 1860. On 21 November 1918, the city council of Limoges and CF du PO signed an agreement regarding the construction of a new station. The construction works lasted from 1924 and 1929. The station was inaugurated on 2 July 1929. The Germans also used an underground roadway as a passive defense shelter, located under the tracks, which previously linked the Ambazac road to Locarno Avenue, now partly walled. The "Wehrmacht Reserved" sign (nur für Wehrmacht) is still present. On the night of 23–24 June 1944, thanks to information from the Resistance, the Allies bombarded the Puy-Imbert marshalling yard in Limoges, preventing the movement of trains for more than a week. The next day, the Germans requisitioned the labor available to clear and clear ... under a sun of lead. The station was listed as a monument historique on 15 January 1975 and work to restore the Great Hall ended in 1979. About 13:20 on 5 February 1998, a fire broke out under the station's dome. The city's population was deeply moved and distressed, and the dome was rebuilt to its original design. The railway accident at Brétigny-sur-Orge was a derailment on 12 July 2013 at the Brétigny railway station in the commune of Brétigny-sur-Orge (Essonne), 28 km south of Paris. Following the failure of a splint, a metal part used to connect two consecutive rails, several cars from a passenger train between Paris-Austerlitz and Limoges-Bénédictins derailed, resulting in the death of seven people. On May 20, 2008, the Limoges station was used for the filming of an advertising clip for the perfume Chanel No 5, "Un train de nuit", directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and featuring actress Audrey Tautou. The rest of the clip was shot in the stations of Nice and Istanbul, around the theme of the Orient-Express. At the end, broadcast in 2009, the station appears at the very beginning of the clip, Audrey Tautou running on the forecourt and causing some pigeons to fly up. This clip suggests that the Limoges station could be the departure of a direct train to Istanbul

1. Architecture

Bénédictins station was designed by architect Roger Gonthier. A particularity of the station is that it was built over the ten railway lines as opposed to next to them. A large 90 by 78 metre platform was built over the line to support the station building. The building is made of a concrete skeleton, filled in with limestone. The dome which covers the passenger concourse is made of a metallic framework, covered in copper. On the Southwest corner is a 67-metre-tall (220 ft) clock tower composed of thirteen levels. It is mounted by a dome itself mounted by a five-metre-tall (16 ft) vase. Below these are four 4-metre-wide (13 ft) clocks. The first floors are occupied by offices. The view from the top floors is stunning over the city of Limoges, part of the agglomeration and the Vienne valley. You can see most of the most important monuments of the city: the town hall, the churches of Saint-Michel and Saint-Pierre, the Gay-Lussac high school, the city of Coutures, the Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Limoges, the Bastide, The technopole or the castle of the Bastide.

1. Services

The following services call at Limoges-Bénédictins as of January 2021:

intercity services (Intercités) Paris - Vierzon - Limoges - Toulouse local service (TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine) Limoges - Angoulême (partly by bus) local service (TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine) Limoges - Uzerche - Brive-la-Gaillarde local service (TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine) Limoges - Saint-Yrieix - Brive-la-Gaillarde (partly by bus) local service (TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine) Limoges - Poitiers local service (TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine) Limoges - Guéret - Montluçon local service (TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine) Limoges - Ussel local service (TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine) Limoges - Thiviers - Périgueux - Bordeaux

1. References


1. External links

Limoges-Bénédictins station at "Gares & Connexions", the official website of SNCF (in French) (in French) Details and information of the station. (in French) Photos of the station.

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Haute-Vienne

Haute-Vienne (French: [ot vjɛn]; Occitan: Nauta Vinhana or Nauta Viena), also translated as Upper Vienne, is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwest-central France. Named after the Vienne River, it is one of the twelve départements that together constitute Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The prefecture and largest city in the department is Limoges, the other towns in the department each having fewer than twenty thousand inhabitants. Haute-Vienne had a population of 372,359 in 2019.

Government Neighbourhood

Limoges

Limoges ( lih-MOHZH, US also lee-, French: [limɔʒ] ; Occitan: Lemòtges, locally Limòtges [liˈmɔdzes]) is a city and commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region. Situated on the first western foothills of the Massif Central, Limoges is crossed by the river Vienne, of which it was originally the first ford crossing point. The second most populated town in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region after Bordeaux, a university town, an administrative centre and intermediate services with all the facilities of a regional metropolis, it has an urban area of 323,789 inhabitants in 2018. The inhabitants of the city are called the Limougeauds. Founded around 10 BC under the name of Augustoritum, it became an important Gallo-Roman city. During the Middle Ages Limoges became a large city, strongly marked by the cultural influence of the Abbey of Saint-Martial, where the Dukes of Aquitaine were invested and crowned. From the 12th century onwards, its enamels were exported throughout the Christian world. In 1765, during the industrial revolution, the discovery of a deposit of kaolin in the Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche region enabled the development of the Limoges porcelain industry. It is sometimes nicknamed "the red city" or "the Rome of socialism" because of its tradition of voting on the left and the workers' events it experienced from the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. Since the 1990s, the city has had a basketball club, Limoges CSP, which has won several French championships and the European championship in 1993. Because of its heritage policy, it has held the label "City of Art and History" since 2008. Economic activities include butchering, electrical equipment for the building industry, and luxury goods. It is home to porcelain houses and art workshops working with enamel or stained glass. This craft expertise led it to join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2017 in the thematic category "Crafts and Popular Arts".

Art Historic Site

Siege of Limoges

The town of Limoges had been under English control but in August 1370 it surrendered to the French, opening its gates to the Duke of Berry. The siege of Limoges was laid by the English army led by Edward the Black Prince in the second week in September. On 19 September, the town was taken by storm, followed by much destruction and the deaths of numerous civilians. The sack effectively ended the Limoges enamel industry, which had been famous across Europe, for around a century.

Historic Site Landmark

398 m

1958 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships

The 1958 Cyclo-cross World Championship was the ninth edition of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships. It was held on Sunday, February 23 1958 in France. The city of Limoges is located 25 kilometers south of Razès, the birthplace of the then four-time (and reigning) world champion André Dufraisse. The course had a total length of 21.38 kilometers. The 31 participants came from eight countries, each sending a team of three or four riders and one rider from the Netherlands. Dufraisse secured his fifth consecutive title with his eighth consecutive podium finish after the same number of participations.

Event Landmark