Clermont-Ferrand

Clermont-Ferrand, city (1990 pop. 140,167), capital of Puy-de-Dôme dept., central France, in Auvergne, on the Tiretaine River. One of the population and industrial centers of the Massif Central, it is home of the Michelin and other tire factories, and of important metallurgical works. The capital of the former province of Auvergne, it was formed in 1731 by the merger of Clermont and Montferrand. Clermont was built in Roman times near the site of Gergovia, which Vercingetorix held against Julius Caesar in 52 B.C. and which was later destroyed. An episcopal see since the 3d cent., it was the site of several church councils, notably that of 1095, where Pope Urban II preached the First Crusade (see Crusades). The city is picturesquely situated near the Puy de Dôme peak. It is built largely of the dark volcanic rock of the region. The Gothic Cathedral of Notre-Dame (13th-14th cent.) and the Romanesque Church of Notre-Dame du Port (12th cent.) are among the notable buildings. Blaise Pascal was born in Clermont-Ferrand. There is a university (founded 1854) in the city.

Clermont-Ferrand (Auvergnat dialect of Occitan: Clarmont-Ferrand / Clarmont d'Auvèrnhe) is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne region, with a population of 140,700 (2006). Its metropolitan area had 409,558 inhabitants at the 1999 census.

It is the prefecture (capital) of the Puy-de-Dôme department. Serge Godard is the current Mayor of the city.

Clermont-Ferrand sits on the plain of Limagne in the Massif Central and is surrounded by a major industrial area. The city is famous for the chain of volcanoes, the Chaîne des Puys surrounding it. The Puy-de-Dôme (13km from the city) is the highest of these and well-known for the telecommunication antennas that sit on its top and are visible from far away.

Clermont-Ferrand is also famous for hosting world's number one International short-film festival as well as Michelin 's corporate headquarters, the famous tyre company created more than 100 years ago in the city.

Clermont-Ferrand's most famous public square is place de Jaude, on which stands a grand statue of Vercingetorix sitting imperiously on a horse and holding a glaive. The inscription reads: J'ai pris les armes pour la liberté de tous (I took to arms for the liberty of all). This statue was sculpted by Frédéric Bartholdi, who also created the Statue of Liberty.

Recently, Clermont-Ferrand, which was France's first city to get a trolleybus (abandoned after World War II), installed a brand new one, thereby linking the city's north and south neighbourhoods.

History

Prehistoric and Roman

Clermont ranks among the oldest cities of France. The first known mention was by the Greek geographer Strabo, who called it the "metropolis of the Arverni" (meaning their oppidum, civitas or tribal capital). The city was at that time called Nemessos—a Gaulish word for a sacred forest, and was situated on the mound where the current cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand was constructed. It was somewhere in the area around Nemossos where the Arverni chieftain Vercingetorix (later to head a unified Gallic resistance to Roman invasion under Julius Caesar) was born nearby in around 72 BC. Also, Nemossos was situated not far from the plateau of Gergovia, where Vercingetorix — some months before capitulating at Alesia — pushed back the Roman assault at the Battle of Gergovia in 52 BC. After the Roman conquest, the city became known as Augustonemetum sometime in the 1st century, a name which combined its original Gallic name with that of the Emperor Augustus. Its population was estimated at 15,000–30,000 inhabitants in the 2nd century, making it one of the largest cities of Roman Gaul. It then became Arvernis in the 3rd century (taking its name, like other Gallic cities in this era, from the people who lived within its walls), going through an expansion phase that ended in the mid-3rd century.

Dark Ages

The city became the seat of a bishop in the 5th century, at the time of the bishop Namatius or Saint Namace, who built a cathedral here described by Gregory of Tours. Clermont went through a dark period after the disappearance of the Roman Empire and during the whole High Middle Ages, marked by pillaging by the peoples who invaded Gaul. Between 471 and 475, Auvergne was often the target of Visigothic expansion, and the city was frequently besieged, including once by Euric. Although defended by Sidonius Apollinaris, at the head of the diocese from 468 to 486, and the patrician Ecdicius, the city was ceded to the Visigoths by emperor Julius Nepos in 475 and became part of the Visigothic kingdom until 507. A generation later, it became part of the kingdom of the Franks. On November 8 535, the first Council of Clermont opened at Arvernis (Clermont), with fifteen bishops participating, including Caesarius of Arles, Nizier of Lyons (bishop of Trèves) and Saint Hilarius, bishop of Mende. Sixteen decrees were made there, notably the second canon that recalls that the granting of episcopal dignity must be according to the merits and not as a result of intrigues.

In 848, the city was renamed Clairmont, after the castle Clarus Mons. During this era, it was an episcopal city ruled by its bishop. Clermont was not spared by the Vikings at the time of the weakening of the Carolingian Empire either, being ravaged by the Normans under Hasting or Hastingen for the first time in 862 and 864 and, while its bishop Sigon carried out reconstruction work, again in 898 (or 910, according to some sources). Bishop Étienne II built a new Roman cathedral on the site of the current cathedral, consecrated in 946 but (apart from the towers, only replaced by the current ones in the 19th century, and some parts of the crypt, still visible) destroyed to build current Gothic cathedral.

Middle Ages

Clairmont was the starting point of the First Crusade from the Christian world to free Jerusalem from Muslim domination—Pope Urban II preached the crusade there in 1095 at the Second Council of Clermont. In 1120, following the repeated crises between the counts of Auvergne and the bishops of Clairmont, in order to counteract the clergy's power, the counts founded the new rival city of Montferrand on a mound next to Clairmont's fortifications, on the model of the new cities of the Midi springing up in the 12th and 13th centuries. Right up to the early modern period, the two remained separate cities - Clairmont an episcopal city, Montferrand a comtal one.

Early Modern and Modern eras

In 1551, Clermont became a royal city, and in 1610, the inseparable property of the Crown. On 15 April, 1630, the Edict of Troyes (the First Edict of Union) forcibly joined the two cities of Clermont and Montferrand. This union was confirmed in 1731 by Louis XV with the Second Edict of Union. At this time Montferrand was no more than a satellite city of Clermont, in which condition it remained until the beginning of the 20th century. Wishing to retain its independence, Montferrand made three demands for independence, in 1789, 1848, and 1863.

In the 20th century, the construction of the Michelin factories and city gardens, which shaped the modern Clermont-Ferrand, definitively reunited Clermont and Montferrand. Today, although the two cities are amalgamated, one may find in Clermont-Ferrand two distinct downtowns, and Montferrand retains a strong identity.

Economy

Food production and processing as well as engineering are major employers in the area, as are the many research facilities of major computer software and pharmaceutical companies.

Education is also an important factor in the economy of Clermont-Ferrand. The Université Blaise Pascal and Université d'Auvergne are located there and have a total student population of over 30,000, along with university faculty and staff.

The city's industry for a long time was linked to the French tyre manufacturer Michelin, which created the radial tyre and grew up from Clermont-Ferrand to become a worldwide leader in its industry. For most of the 20th century, it ran extensive factory works throughout the city, employing up to 30,000 workers at a time. While the company has maintained its headquarters in the city, most of the manufacturing is now done in foreign countries. Fortunately, this downsizing took place gradually, allowing the city to court new investment in other industries, avoiding the fate of most post-industrial cities.

Culture

Arts

Clermont-Ferrand's most famous figure is the mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal who tested Evangelista Torricelli's hypothesis concerning the influence of gas pressure on liquid equilibrium. This is the famous experiment where a vacuum is created in a mercury tube: Pascal's experiment had his brother-in-law carry a barometer to the top of the Puy-de-Dôme. The Université Blaise-Pascal (or Clermont-Ferrand II) is located primarily in the city and is named after him.

Clermont-Ferrand also hosts world's first International short film festival which originated in 1979 (see the official link below). This festival which brings thousands of people every year (137.000 in 2008) to the city is the second French film Festival after Cannes in term of visitors, but the first one regarding the number of spectators (as in Cannes visitors are not allowed in theatres, reserved to professionals). This festival has revealed many young talented directors now well-known in France and even internationally such as Mathieu Kassovitz, Cédric Klapisch or Éric Zonka.

Beside the short film festival, Clermont-Ferrand hosts more than twenty music, film, dance and theatre festivals every year. With more than 200 artistic groups from dance to music, Clermont-Ferrand and the Auvergne region's cultural life is one of the most important in France, which fairly justifies its nickname of "France's Liverpool". Groups such as The Elderberries were born there.

Additionally, the city was the subject of the acclaimed documentary The Sorrow and the Pity, which used Clermont-Ferrand as the basis of the film, which told the story of France under Nazi occupation and the Vichy regime of Marshal Pétain. Pierre Laval, Pétain's "handman" was an Auvergnat.

Sport

A racing circuit, the Charade Circuit, close to the city, using closed-off public roads held the French Grand Prix in 1965, 1969, 1970 and 1972. It was a daunting circuit, with such harsh elevation changes that caused some drivers to be ill as they drove. Winners included Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart (twice), and Jochen Rindt.

The city is also host to a high-profile rugby union club, ASM Clermont Auvergne, as well as Clermont Foot Auvergne, a football club that will compete in France's second division, Ligue 2, during the 2007–2008 season.

Religious architecture

Clermont-Ferrand has two famous churches :

• Notre-Dame du Port: a Romanesque church built during the 11th and 12th centuries (the bell tower was rebuilt during the 19th century). It was nominated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1998.
• Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral (Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption de Clermont-ferrand): a Gothic cathedral built between the 13th and the 19th centuries.

Famous people

Clermont-Ferrand was the birthplace of:

• Blaise Pascal (19 June 1623–19 August 1662), mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher
• Jacques Delille (June 22, 1738 - May 1, 1813), poet
• Nicolas Chamfort (April 6, 1741- April 13, 1794) writer
• George Onslow (July 27 1784 – October 3 1853) composer
• Patrick Depailler (9 August 1944 - 1 August 1980), Formula 1 driver
• Bernard Loiseau (1950-2003), celebrity chef
• Aurélien Rougerie, rugby union player, member of the French national team

People that have lived in Clermont-Ferrand

• Sidonius Apollinaris (c. 430 – after 489) Gallo-Roman poet, diplomat and bishop
• Paul Bourget (September 2, 1852–December 25, 1935), novelist and critic
• Alexandre Vialatte (1901 - 1971), writer and journalist
• Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (1927 - ... ), who has lived in the city of Chamalières, part of Clermont-Ferrand's metropolitan area, President of the Republic of France from 1974 to 1981

Twin towns

• Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom (since 1983)
• Salford, England, United Kingdom
• Regensburg, Germany, since 1969
• Gomel, Belarus
• Oviedo, Spain
• Braga, Portugal
• Norman, Oklahoma, United States
• Oyem, Gabon

Notes

References

• Sweets, John F. (1986). Choices in Vichy France : The French under Nazi Occupation. New York:

External links

• Official Parc Naturel des Volcans d'Auvergne homepage
• Official Parc Naturel Regional Livradois-Forez homepage
• Official Clermont-Ferrand town homepage
• Official Clermont-Ferrand tourism services webpage
• Clermont-Ferrand film festival
• Unofficial Clermont-Ferrand website
• Joan of Arc's Letter to Clermont-Ferrand - Translation by Allen Williamson of an entry concerning Joan of Arc's letter to this city on 7 November 1429.