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123-699: Toulouse ( / t uː ˈ l uː z / too- LOOZ ; French: [tuluz] ; Occitan : Tolosa [tuˈluzɔ] ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania . The city is on the banks of the River Garonne , 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the Mediterranean Sea , 230 km (143 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean and 680 km (420 mi) from Paris . It

246-446: A métropole in 2015, spanning 37 communes with 806,503 inhabitants in 2020 census. Occitan language Italy Occitan ( English: / ˈ ɒ k s ɪ t ən , - t æ n , - t ɑː n / ; Occitan pronunciation: [utsiˈta, uksiˈta] ), also known as lenga d'òc ( Occitan: [ˈleŋɡɒ ˈðɔ(k)] ; French : langue d'oc ) by its native speakers, sometimes also referred to as Provençal ,

369-498: A ceramic glaze. Terracotta sculptures in the West were rarely left in their "raw" fired state until the 18th century. Terracotta female figurines were uncovered by archaeologists in excavations of Mohenjo-daro , Pakistan (3000–1500 BCE). Along with phallus-shaped stones, these suggest some sort of fertility cult. The Burney Relief is an outstanding terracotta plaque from Ancient Mesopotamia of about 1950 BCE. In Mesoamerica ,

492-553: A common origin (see Occitano-Romance languages ). The language was one of the first to gain prestige as a medium for literature among Romance languages in the Middle Ages. Indeed, in the 12th and 13th centuries, Catalan troubadours such as Guerau de Cabrera , Guilhem de Bergadan, Guilhem de Cabestany, Huguet de Mataplana , Raimon Vidal de Besalú, Cerverí de Girona , Formit de Perpinhan, and Jofre de Foixà wrote in Occitan. At

615-643: A consonant), whereas the southernmost dialects have more features in common with the Ibero-Romance languages (e.g. betacism ; voiced fricatives between vowels in place of voiced stops; - ch - in place of - it -), and Gascon has a number of unusual features not seen in other dialects (e.g. /h/ in place of /f/ ; loss of /n/ between vowels; intervocalic -r- and final -t/ch in place of medieval - ll -). There are also significant lexical differences, where some dialects have words cognate with French, and others have Catalan and Spanish cognates. Nonetheless, there

738-503: A dialect of French spoken by Jews in southern France. Southern Jewish French is now estimated to only be spoken by about 50–100 people. Domergue Sumien proposes a slightly different supradialectal grouping. Terracotta Usage and definitions of the term vary, such as: Glazed architectural terracotta and its unglazed version as exterior surfaces for buildings were used in East Asia for centuries before becoming popular in

861-571: A flood of the Garonne devastated more than 1,000 houses and killed 200 people. It also destroyed all the bridges in Toulouse, except the Pont-Neuf . World War I brought to Toulouse (geographically sheltered from enemy attacks) chemical industries as well as aviation workshops ( Latécoère , Dewoitine ), which launched the city's aeronautical construction tradition and gave birth after the war to

984-607: A growth of 15.3% for metropolitan France between 1990 and 2020, i.e. +0.48% per year. This was the second-highest population growth of any French metropolitan area larger than 500,000 inhabitants (only the Montpellier metropolitan area grew more than Toulouse between 1990 and 2019). The Toulouse metropolitan area reached 1,470,899 inhabitants in January 2020, and stood as the 5th most populated metropolitan area in France, behind

1107-746: A part of a wider Occitano-Romanic group. One such classification posits three groups: According to this view, Catalan is an ausbau language that became independent from Occitan during the 13th century, but originates from the Aquitano-Pyrenean group. Occitan has 3 dialects spoken by Jewish communities that are all now extinct. A sociolect of the Gascon dialect spoken by Spanish and Portuguese Jews in Gascony . It, like many other Jewish dialects and languages, contained large amounts of Hebrew loanwords. It went extinct after World War 2 with

1230-540: A second Occitan immigration of this period was assimilated by the similar Navarro-Aragonese language , which at the same time was fostered and chosen by the kings of Aragon . In the 14th century, Occitan across the whole southern Pyrenean area fell into decay and became largely absorbed into Navarro-Aragonese first and Castilian later in the 15th century, after their exclusive boroughs broke up (1423, Pamplona 's boroughs unified). Gascon-speaking communities were called to move in for trading purposes by Navarrese kings in

1353-582: A significant presence in Toulouse. The air route between Toulouse–Blagnac and the Parisian airports is the busiest in France, transporting 3.2 million passengers in 2019. According to the rankings of L'Express and Challenges , Toulouse is the most dynamic French city. Founded by the Romans, the city was the capital of the Visigothic Kingdom in the 5th century and the capital of

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1476-489: A single written standard form, nor does it have official status in France, home to most of its speakers. Instead, there are competing norms for writing Occitan, some of which attempt to be pan-dialectal, whereas others are based on a particular dialect. These efforts are hindered by the rapidly declining use of Occitan as a spoken language in much of southern France, as well as by the significant differences in phonology and vocabulary among different Occitan dialects. According to

1599-411: A speciality of terracotta temples, with the sculpted decoration from the same material as the main brick construction. Terracotta tiles have also been used extensively for floors since ancient times. The quality of terracotta floor tiles depends on the suitability of the clay, the manufacturing methods (kiln-fired being more durable than sun baked), and whether the terracotta tiles are sealed or not. In

1722-638: A term that was still used in the Renaissance and even today when the city is presented as propitious to the arts and letters. Around the year 250, Toulouse was marked by the martyrdom of Saturnin , the first bishop of Toulouse. This episode illustrates the difficult beginnings of Christianity in Roman Gaul. In the 5th century, Toulouse fell to the Visigothic kingdom and became one of its major cities, even serving as its capital , before it fell to

1845-476: A unitary language, as it lacks an official written standard . Like other languages that fundamentally exist at a spoken, rather than written, level (e.g. the Rhaeto-Romance languages , Franco-Provençal , Astur-Leonese , and Aragonese ), every settlement technically has its own dialect, with the whole of Occitania forming a classic dialect continuum that changes gradually along any path from one side to

1968-535: A very early date. The famous Terracotta Army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang , 209–210 BCE, was somewhat untypical, and two thousand years ago reliefs were more common, in tombs and elsewhere. Later Buddhist figures were often made in painted and glazed terracotta, with the Yixian glazed pottery luohans , probably of 1150–1250, now in various Western museums, among the most prominent examples. Brick-built tombs from

2091-625: A written account in Occitan from Pamplona centered on the burning of borough San Nicolas from 1258, while the History of the War of Navarre by Guilhem Anelier (1276), albeit written in Pamplona, shows a linguistic variant from Toulouse . Things turned out slightly otherwise in Aragon, where the sociolinguistic situation was different, with a clearer Basque-Romance bilingual situation (cf. Basques from

2214-410: Is "probably not more divergent from Occitan overall than Gascon is". There is no general agreement about larger groupings of these dialects. Max Wheeler divides the dialects into two groups: Pierre Bec divides the dialects into three groups: In order to overcome the pitfalls of the traditional romanistic view, Bec proposed a "supradialectal" classification that groups Occitan with Catalan as

2337-631: Is a Romance language spoken in Southern France , Monaco , Italy 's Occitan Valleys , as well as Spain 's Val d'Aran in Catalonia ; collectively, these regions are sometimes referred to as Occitania . It is also spoken in Calabria ( Southern Italy ) in a linguistic enclave of Cosenza area (mostly Guardia Piemontese ). Some include Catalan in Occitan, as the linguistic distance between this language and some Occitan dialects (such as

2460-401: Is a limit on the stress that can be imposed on terracotta, and terracotta statues of unsupported standing figures are limited to well under life-size unless extra structural support is added. This is also because large figures are extremely difficult to fire, and surviving examples often show sagging or cracks. The Yixian figures were fired in several pieces, and have iron rods inside to hold

2583-464: Is a significant amount of mutual intelligibility . Gascon is the most divergent, and descriptions of the main features of Occitan often consider Gascon separately. Max Wheeler notes that "probably only its copresence within the French cultural sphere has kept [Gascon] from being regarded as a separate language", and compares it to Franco-Provençal, which is considered a separate language from Occitan but

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2706-533: Is also the home of prestigious higher education schools, notably in the field of aerospace engineering. Together with the university, they have turned Toulouse into the fourth-largest student city in France, with a university population of nearly 140,000 students. Toulouse counts three UNESCO World Heritage Sites : the Canal du Midi (designated in 1996 and shared with other cities), and the Basilica of St. Sernin ,

2829-426: Is not watertight , but its porousness decreases when the body is surface-burnished before firing. Glazes can used to decrease permeability and hence increase watertightness. Unglazed terracotta is suitable for use below ground to carry pressurized water (an archaic use), for garden pots and irrigation or building decoration in many environments, and for oil containers, oil lamps, or ovens. Most other uses require

2952-462: Is not covered. Prior to firing, terracotta clays are easy to shape. Shaping techniques include throwing , slip casting as well as others . After drying, it is placed in a kiln or, more traditionally, in a pit covered with combustible material, then fired . The typical firing temperature is around 1,000 °C (1,830 °F), though it may be as low as 600 °C (1,112 °F) in historic and archaeological examples. During this process,

3075-487: Is seasonal, reaching its peak during the harvest festival, when new pottery and votive idols are required. During the rest of the year, the makers rely on agriculture or some other means of income. The designs are often redundant as crafters apply similar reliefs and techniques for different subjects. Customers suggest subjects and uses for each piece. To sustain the legacy, the Indian Government has established

3198-520: Is the fourth-largest city in France after Paris , Marseille and Lyon , with 504,078 inhabitants within its municipal boundaries (2021); its metropolitan area has a population of 1.5 million inhabitants (2021). Toulouse is the central city of one of the 22 metropolitan councils of France. Between the 2014 and 2020 censuses, its metropolitan area was the third fastest growing among metropolitan areas larger than 500,000 inhabitants in France. Toulouse

3321-846: Is the centre of the European aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus , the SPOT satellite system , ATR and the Aerospace Valley . It hosts the CNES 's Toulouse Space Centre (CST) which is the largest national space centre in Europe, but also, on the military side, the newly created NATO space centre of excellence and the French Space Command and Space Academy. Safran , Thales Alenia Space , Airbus Defence and Space , Collins Aerospace and Liebherr-Aerospace also have

3444-413: Is the other native language. Up to seven million people in France understand the language, whereas twelve to fourteen million fully spoke it in 1921. In 1860 , Occitan speakers represented more than 39% of the whole French population (52% for francophones proper); they were still 26% to 36% in the 1920s and fewer than 7% in 1993. Occitan is fundamentally defined by its dialects, rather than being

3567-467: Is worthier and better suited for romances and pastourelles ; but [the language] from Limousin is of greater value for writing poems and cançons and sirventés ; and across the whole of the lands where our tongue is spoken, the literature in the Limousin language has more authority than any other dialect, wherefore I shall use this name in priority. The term Provençal , though implying a reference to

3690-527: The òc language (Occitan), the oïl language (French), and the sì language (Italian). The word òc came from Vulgar Latin hoc ("this"), while oïl originated from Latin hoc illud ("this [is] it"). Old Catalan and now the Catalan of Northern Catalonia also have hoc ( òc ). Other Romance languages derive their word for "yes" from the Latin sic , "thus [it is], [it

3813-478: The Consistori del Gay Saber was created in Toulouse to preserve the lyric art of the troubadours by organizing a poetry contest; and Toulouse became the centre of Occitan literary culture for the following centuries. The Consistori is considered to be the oldest literary society in Europe, at the origin of one of the most sophisticated treatise on grammar and rhetoric of the Middle Ages, and in 1694 it

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3936-640: The Romance of Flamenca (13th century), the Song of the Albigensian Crusade (1213–1219?), Daurel e Betó (12th or 13th century), Las, qu'i non-sun sparvir, astur (11th century) and Tomida femina (9th or 10th century). Occitan was the vehicle for the influential poetry of the medieval troubadours ( trobadors ) and trobairitz : At that time, the language was understood and celebrated throughout most of educated Europe. It

4059-608: The Aphrodite Heyl ; the Romans too made great numbers of small figurines, which were often used in a religious context as cult statues or temple decorations. Etruscan art often used terracotta in preference to stone even for larger statues, such as the near life-size Apollo of Veii and the Sarcophagus of the Spouses . Campana reliefs are Ancient Roman terracotta reliefs , originally mostly used to make friezes for

4182-480: The Bourg in practice a separate district from the city. In 1152, the notables of Toulouse took advantage of a weakening of the county power to obtain for their city a great autonomy, they created a municipal body of consuls, called capitouls in Toulouse, to lead the city. The Bourg , which had only a quarter of the inhabitants of Toulouse, obtained as many capitouls as the rest of the city. Economically, Toulouse, which

4305-626: The Franks under Clovis in 507 during the Battle of Vouillé . From that time, Toulouse was the capital of Aquitaine within the Frankish realm. In 721, Duke Odo of Aquitaine defeated an invading Umayyad Muslim army at the Battle of Toulouse . Many Arab chroniclers consider that Odo's victory was the real stop to Muslim expansion into Christian Europe , incursions of the following years being simple raids without real will of conquest (including

4428-647: The French Empire to the nations of the Sixth Coalition (a fact that the two armies involved were not yet aware of), the Battle of Toulouse pitted the Hispanic-British troops of Field Marshal Wellington against the French troops of Napoleonic Marshal Soult , who, although they managed to resist, were forced to withdraw. Toulouse was thus the scene of the last Franco-British battle on French territory. Unlike most large French cities, there

4551-475: The French Revolution of 1789 and the reform or suppression of all royal institutions, Toulouse lost much of its power and influence: until then the capital of the vast province of Languedoc, with a parliament ruling over an even larger territory, the city then found itself simply at the head of the single small department of Haute-Garonne . On 10 April 1814, four days after Napoleon 's surrender of

4674-595: The Gascon language ) is similar to the distance between different Occitan dialects. Catalan was considered a dialect of Occitan until the end of the 19th century and still today remains its closest relative. Occitan is an official language of Catalonia, Spain, where a subdialect of Gascon known as Aranese is spoken (in the Val d'Aran ). Since September 2010, the Parliament of Catalonia has considered Aranese Occitan to be

4797-564: The Gupta period and the centuries immediately following it. Several vigorous local popular traditions of terracotta folk sculpture remain active today, such as the Bankura horses . Precolonial West African sculpture also made extensive use of terracotta. The regions most recognized for producing terracotta art in that part of the world include the Nok culture of central and north-central Nigeria ,

4920-544: The Han dynasty were often finished on the interior wall with bricks decorated on one face; the techniques included molded reliefs. Later tombs contained many figures of protective spirits and animals and servants for the afterlife, including the famous horses of the Tang dynasty ; as an arbitrary matter of terminology these tend not to be referred to as terracottas. European medieval art made little use of terracotta sculpture, until

5043-518: The Ife - Benin cultural axis in western and southern Nigeria (also noted for its exceptionally naturalistic sculpture), and the Igbo culture area of eastern Nigeria, which excelled in terracotta pottery. These related, but separate, traditions also gave birth to elaborate schools of bronze and brass sculpture in the area. Chinese sculpture made great use of terracotta, with and without glazing and color, from

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5166-468: The UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages , four of the six major dialects of Occitan (Provençal, Auvergnat , Limousin and Languedocien) are considered severely endangered , whereas the remaining two ( Gascon and Vivaro-Alpine ) are considered definitely endangered . The name Occitan comes from the term lenga d'òc ("language of òc "), òc being the Occitan word for yes. While

5289-582: The Val d'Aran cited c.  1000 ), but a receding Basque language (Basque banned in the marketplace of Huesca, 1349). While the language was chosen as a medium of prestige in records and official statements along with Latin in the early 13th century, Occitan faced competition from the rising local Romance vernacular, the Navarro-Aragonese , both orally and in writing, especially after Aragon's territorial conquests south to Zaragoza , Huesca and Tudela between 1118 and 1134. It resulted that

5412-577: The province of Languedoc in the Late Middle Ages and early modern period (provinces were abolished during the French Revolution ), making it the unofficial capital of the cultural region of Occitania (Southern France). It is now the capital of the administrative region of Occitania , the second largest region in Metropolitan France . The University of Toulouse is one of the oldest in Europe (founded in 1229). Toulouse

5535-416: The 12th century the city left its Roman limits and a new district developed around the church of Saint-Sernin : the Bourg . The church of Saint-Sernin was famous and revered for its many relics, and the chapter of its canons, which had possessions as far away as Spain, was powerful enough to free itself from the control of the bishop of Toulouse. This dissent had important local political repercussions, making

5658-400: The 19th century, the possibilities of terracotta decoration for buildings were again appreciated by architects, often using thicker pieces of terracotta and styled surfaces. The American architect Louis Sullivan is well known for his elaborate glazed terracotta ornamentation, designs that would have been impossible to execute in any other medium. Terracotta and tile were used extensively in

5781-520: The AZF fertiliser factory, causing 31 deaths, about 30 seriously wounded and 2,500 light casualties. The blast measured 3.4 on the Richter scale and the explosion was heard 80 km (50 mi) away. In 2016, a territorial reform made Toulouse the regional prefecture of Occitanie , the second largest region in metropolitan France, giving it a role commensurate with its past as a provincial capital among

5904-476: The Carolingian Civil War. Charlemagne had created the county of Toulouse in 778 to guard the border of Muslim Spain, but the disintegration of the kingdom of Aquitaine and the weakness of royal power in the following centuries led to the de facto independence of the county of Toulouse and many provinces. In the 11th and 12th centuries, southern France was still steeped in Latin culture. Unlike

6027-613: The Judeo-Occitan dialects, Judeo-Niçard was spoken by the community of Jews living in Nice , who were descendants of Jewish immigrants from Provence, Piedmont, and other Mediterranean communities. Its existence is attested from a few documents from the 19th century. It contained significant influence in both vocabulary and grammar from Hebrew. All three of these dialects have some influence in Southern Jewish French,

6150-541: The Roman Emperors adorning Hampton Court Palace , by Giovanni da Maiano , 1521, were another example of Italian work in England. They were originally painted but this has now been lost from weathering. In the 18th-century unglazed terracotta, which had long been used for preliminary clay models or maquettes that were then fired, became fashionable as a material for small sculptures including portrait busts. It

6273-453: The Romans and is seen nowhere else in the country. Contemporary centres for terracotta figurines include West Bengal , Bihar , Jharkhand , Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu . In Bishnupur , West Bengal, the terracotta pattern–panels on the temples are known for their intricate details. The Bankura Horse is also very famous and belongs to the Bengal school of terracotta. Madhya Pradesh is one of

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6396-640: The West in the 19th century. Architectural terracotta can also refer to decorated ceramic elements such as antefixes and revetments , which had a large impact on the appearance of temples and other buildings in the classical architecture of Europe , as well as in the Ancient Near East . This article covers the senses of terracotta as a medium in sculpture, as in the Terracotta Army and Greek terracotta figurines , and architectural decoration. East Asian and European sculpture in porcelain

6519-688: The axis of communication between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The city is about 100 km from the Pyrenees and the borders with Andorra and Spain. The city is traversed by the Canal de Brienne , the Canal du Midi , the Canal de Garonne and the rivers Garonne , Touch and Hers-Mort . Toulouse has a four-season humid subtropical climate ( Cfa in the Köppen climate classification ). Too much precipitation during

6642-402: The baking time, the colour differed from red to light orange. The Satavahanas used two different moulds- one for the front and the other for the back and kept a piece of clay in each mould and joined them together, making some artefacts hollow from within. Some Satavahana terracotta artefacts also seem to have a thin strip of clay joining the two moulds. This technique may have been imported from

6765-452: The cities in southern France is unlikely to hear a single Occitan word spoken on the street (or, for that matter, in a home), and is likely to only find the occasional vestige, such as street signs (and, of those, most will have French equivalents more prominently displayed), to remind them of the traditional language of the area. Occitan speakers, as a result of generations of systematic suppression and humiliation (see Vergonha ), seldom use

6888-415: The city a few kilometres from the hills where it was an oppidum to the banks of the Garonne, which were more suitable for trade. In the second half of the 1st century, the emperor Domitian distinguished Toulouse by placing it under the patronage of the goddess Pallas Athena , so that the Latin poets Martial , Ausonius and Sidonius Apollinaris called the city Palladia Tolosa (Palladian Toulouse),

7011-439: The city became the first European centre for the trade in woad, the only blue dye then known in Europe which was very much in demand in the textile industry at the time. Its humanist milieu developed thanks to its university and parliament, which trained and attracted intellectual elites. The wealth generated by this culturally and economically dynamic environment is the source of the superb Renaissance mansions in Toulouse. In 1550

7134-413: The city for fifteen days. After this dramatic event, King Louis XIII exempted the city from taxes for 100 years. The capitouls issued municipal decrees favouring the use of brick in buildings, rather than excessively flammable wood or cob. In the 16th century, and until 1562, the economy of Toulouse experienced a golden age: its Parliament made it the judicial capital of a large part of southern France, and

7257-419: The city militarily as well as the ascendancy that its counts had over it. The Duke William IX of Aquitaine challenged the possession of the city on the grounds that it should have been inherited by his wife Philippa (daughter of the previous count of Toulouse , whereas Raymond IV was only his brother). More than 50 years later his granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine still claimed the inheritance in vain. In

7380-611: The city of Toulouse proper. As of February 2004 estimate, the total population of the Community of Agglomeration of Greater Toulouse was 651,209 inhabitants, 65.5% of whom live in the city of Toulouse. Due to local political feuds, the Community of Agglomeration only hosts 61% of the population of the metropolitan area, the other independent suburbs having refused to join in. Since 2009, the Community of agglomeration has become an urban community (in French: communauté urbaine). This has become

7503-539: The city was the key stronghold of the French defence in the south of France during the worst years of the Hundred Years' War, when the English troops from Aquitaine had taken Montauban and only Toulouse remained as an obstacle to their conquest of southern France. This military threat to the city and especially to the surrounding countryside was not conducive to its development, despite the strengthening of ties with

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7626-471: The city's population. In 1963, Toulouse was chosen to become one of the country's eight "balancing Metropolis", regaining a position among the country's major cities that it had always had, but lost in the 19th century. The French state then encouraged the city's specialisation in aeronautics and space activities, sectors that had experienced strong growth in recent decades, fueling economic and population growth. On 21 September 2001, an explosion occurred at

7749-490: The early 12th century to the coastal fringe extending from San Sebastian to the river Bidasoa , where they settled down. The language variant they used was different from the ones in Navarre, i.e. a Béarnese dialect of Gascon. Gascon remained in use in this area far longer than in Navarre and Aragon, until the 19th century, thanks mainly to the fact that Donostia and Pasaia maintained close ties with Bayonne . Though it

7872-921: The end of the 11th century, the Franks , as they were called at the time, started to penetrate the Iberian Peninsula through the Ways of St. James via Somport and Roncesvalles , settling in various locations in the Kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon enticed by the privileges granted them by the Navarrese kings . They settled in large groups, forming ethnic boroughs where Occitan was used for everyday life, in Pamplona , Sangüesa , and Estella-Lizarra , among others. These boroughs in Navarre may have been close-knit communities that tended not to assimilate with

7995-406: The establishment of colleges in the university towns of southern France, not only Toulouse but also Montpellier, Cahors and Avignon. The Black Death in 1348, then the Hundred Years' War caused a major crisis that lasted until the following century. Despite strong immigration, the population lost more than 10,000 inhabitants in 70 years. By 1405 Toulouse had only 19,000 people. In these hardships,

8118-451: The famous Aéropostale , a pioneering airmail company based in Toulouse and whose epics were popularised by the novels of writers such as Joseph Kessel and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (himself an Aéropostale pilot). In the 1920s and 1930s the rise of the Toulouse population was increased by the arrival of Italians and Spaniards fleeing the fascist regimes of their country. Then, in the early 1960s, French repatriates from Algeria swelled

8241-399: The famous Bernard de Ventadour , expert in singing courtly love . In 1096, Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse , left with his army at the call of the Pope Urban II to join the First Crusade , of which he was one of the main leaders. This exodus of its warriors and nobles, reinforced by the creation of the faraway County of Tripoli by Raymond IV at the beginning of the 12th century, weakened

8364-463: The fingers, allows the artist to take a more free and flexible approach. Small details that might be impractical to carve in stone, of hair or costume for example, can easily be accomplished in terracotta, and drapery can sometimes be made up of thin sheets of clay that make it much easier to achieve a realistic effect. Reusable mold-making techniques may be used for production of many identical pieces. Compared to marble sculpture and other stonework,

8487-418: The finished product is far lighter and may be further painted and glazed to produce objects with color or durable simulations of metal patina. Robust durable works for outdoor use require greater thickness and so will be heavier, with more care needed in the drying of the unfinished piece to prevent cracking as the material shrinks. Structural considerations are similar to those required for stone sculpture; there

8610-416: The geographical territory in which Occitan is spoken is surrounded by regions in which other Romance languages are used, external influences may have influenced its origin and development. Many factors favored its development as its own language. Catalan in Spain's northern and central Mediterranean coastal regions and the Balearic Islands is closely related to Occitan, sharing many linguistic features and

8733-478: The great majority of Olmec figurines were in terracotta. Many ushabti mortuary statuettes were also made of terracotta in Ancient Egypt . The Ancient Greeks ' Tanagra figurines were mass-produced mold-cast and fired terracotta figurines, that seem to have been widely affordable in the Hellenistic period , and often purely decorative in function. They were part of a wide range of Greek terracotta figurines , which included larger and higher-quality works such as

8856-545: The import of olive oil, wine and other goods from the Mediterranean regions. In the 18th century, Toulouse was a provincial capital that prided itself on its royal academies (the only city in France, along with Paris, to have three royal academies), but sometimes seemed far removed from the debates of ideas that agitated the Enlightenment . A famous example illustrates this backwardness of Toulouse mentalities of

8979-414: The iron oxides in the body reacts with oxygen, often resulting in the reddish colour known as terracotta . However, color can vary widely, including shades of yellow, orange, buff, red, pink, grey or brown. A final method is to carve fired bricks or other terracotta shapes. This technique is less common, but examples can be found in the architecture of Bengal on Hindu temples and mosques. Terracotta

9102-476: The language at the beginning of the 13th century by Catalan troubadour Raimon Vidal de Besalú(n) in his Razós de trobar : La parladura Francesca val mais et [es] plus avinenz a far romanz e pasturellas; mas cella de Lemozin val mais per far vers et cansons et serventés; et per totas las terras de nostre lengage son de major autoritat li cantar de la lenga Lemosina que de negun'autra parladura, per qu'ieu vos en parlarai primeramen. The French language

9225-460: The language in the presence of strangers, whether they are from abroad or from outside Occitania (in this case, often merely and abusively referred to as Parisiens or Nordistes , which means northerners ). Occitan is still spoken by many elderly people in rural areas, but they generally switch to French when dealing with outsiders. Occitan's decline is somewhat less pronounced in Béarn because of

9348-480: The language. Following the pattern of language shift , most of this remainder is to be found among the eldest populations. Occitan activists (called Occitanists ) have attempted, in particular with the advent of Occitan-language preschools (the Calandretas ), to reintroduce the language to the young. Nonetheless, the number of proficient speakers of Occitan is thought to be dropping precipitously. A tourist in

9471-461: The larger collection of dialects grouped under the name langues d'oïl ) should be used for all French administration. Occitan's greatest decline occurred during the French Revolution , in which diversity of language was considered a threat. In 1903, the four Gospels ( "Lis Evangèli" , i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were translated into Provençal as spoken in Cannes and Grasse. The translation

9594-485: The largest remaining Romanesque building in Europe, designated in 1998 along with the former hospital Hôtel-Dieu Saint-Jacques because of their significance to the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route . The city's unique architecture made of pinkish terracotta bricks has earned Toulouse the nickname La Ville rose ("The Pink city"). Toulouse is in the south of France, north of the department of Haute-Garonne, on

9717-515: The last speakers being elderly Jews in Bayonne . About 850 unique words and a few morphological and grammatical aspects of the dialect were transmitted to Southern Jewish French. Judeo-Provençal was a dialect of Occitan spoken by Jews in Provence . The dialect declined in usage after Jews were expelled from the area in 1498, and was probably extinct by the 20th century. The least attested of

9840-589: The late 14th century, when it became used in advanced International Gothic workshops in parts of Germany. The Virgin illustrated at the start of the article from Bohemia is the unique example known from there. A few decades later, there was a revival in the Italian Renaissance , inspired by excavated classical terracottas as well as the German examples, which gradually spread to the rest of Europe. In Florence , Luca della Robbia (1399/1400–1482)

9963-772: The latter term for the language as a whole. Many non-specialists, however, continue to refer to the language as Provençal . One of the oldest written fragments of the language found dates back to 960, shown here in italics mixed with non-italicized Latin: De ista hora in antea non decebrà Ermengaus filius Eldiarda Froterio episcopo filio Girberga ne Raimundo filio Bernardo vicecomite de castello de Cornone ... no·l li tolrà ni no·l li devedarà ni no l'en decebrà  ... nec societatem non aurà , si per castellum recuperare non o fa , et si recuperare potuerit in potestate Froterio et Raimundo lo tornarà , per ipsas horas quæ Froterius et Raimundus l'en comonrà . Carolingian litanies ( c.  780 ), though

10086-664: The leader sang in Latin , were answered to in Old Occitan by the people ( Ora pro nos ; Tu lo juva ). Other famous pieces include the Boecis , a 258-line-long poem written entirely in the Limousin dialect of Occitan between the year 1000 and 1030 and inspired by Boethius 's The Consolation of Philosophy ; the Waldensian La nobla leyczon (dated 1100), Cançó de Santa Fe ( c.  1054 –1076),

10209-413: The material to be glazed, such as tableware, sanitary piping, or building decorations built for freezing environments. Terracotta will also ring if lightly struck, as long as it is not cracked. Painted ( polychrome ) terracotta is typically first covered with a thin coat of gesso , then painted. It is widely used, but only suitable for indoor positions and much less durable than fired colors in or under

10332-440: The metropolitan areas of Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and Lille, but ahead of the metropolitan area of Bordeaux, which the Toulouse metropolitan area passed in population in the 1990s. A local Jewish group estimates there are about 2,500 Jewish families in Toulouse. A Muslim association has estimated there are some 35,000 Muslims in town. The Community of Agglomeration of Greater Toulouse ( Communauté d'agglomération du Grand Toulouse )

10455-415: The modern Occitan-speaking area. After Frédéric Mistral 's Félibrige movement in the 19th century, Provençal achieved the greatest literary recognition and so became the most popular term for Occitan. According to Joseph Anglade , a philologist and specialist of medieval literature who helped impose the then archaic term Occitan as the standard name, the word Lemosin was first used to designate

10578-510: The most famous is The Abduction of Hippodameia depicting the Greek mythological scene of a centaur kidnapping Hippodameia on her wedding day. Terracotta tiles have a long history in many parts of the world. Many ancient and traditional roofing styles included more elaborate sculptural elements than the plain roof tiles , such as Chinese Imperial roof decoration and the antefix of western classical architecture . In India West Bengal made

10701-487: The most important in France. The population of the city proper (French: commune ) was 498,003 at the January 2020 census, with 1,470,899 inhabitants in the metropolitan area , up from 1,268,438 at the January 2009 census. Thus, the metropolitan area registered a population growth rate of +1.36% per year between 2009 and 2020, the third-highest growth rate of any French metropolitan area larger than 500,000 inhabitants in France, after Montpellier and Bordeaux , although it

10824-599: The most prominent production centres of terracotta art today. The tribes of the Bastar have a rich tradition. They make intricate designs and statues of animals and birds. Hand-painted clay and terracotta products are produced in Gujarat . The Aiyanar cult in Tamil Nadu is associated with life-size terracotta statues. Traditional terracotta sculptures, mainly religious, also continue to be made. The demand for this craft

10947-606: The name of the Gaulish Volcae Tectosages , or to the same root as Irish tulach or Welsh twlch , (little hill). Tolosa enters the historical period in the 2nd century BC, when it became a Roman military outpost. After the conquest of Gaul , it was developed as a Roman city in Gallia Narbonensis . Under the reign of Emperor Augustus and thanks to the Pax Romana , the Romans moved

11070-422: The negative sense: for example, "Vous n'avez pas de frères?" "Si, j'en ai sept." ("You have no brothers?" "But yes, I have seven."). The name "Occitan" was attested around 1300 as occitanus , a crossing of oc and aquitanus ( Aquitanian ). For many centuries, the Occitan dialects (together with Catalan ) were referred to as Limousin or Provençal , after the names of two regions lying within

11193-516: The north of France, justice followed written Roman law and the nobles were highly educated. This was the time of the troubadours who wrote their poetry in Occitan (called "Provençal" at the time), then one of the most sophisticated languages in Europe. Like the other great lords of the Midi , the counts of Toulouse maintained and favoured these poets, this is how Count Raymond V employed for some time

11316-537: The officially preferred language for use in the Val d'Aran. Across history, the terms Limousin ( Lemosin ), Languedocien ( Lengadocian ), Gascon , in addition to Provençal ( Provençal , Provençau or Prouvençau ) later have been used as synonyms for the whole of Occitan; nowadays, the term "Provençal" is understood mainly as the Occitan dialect spoken in Provence , in southeast France. Unlike other Romance languages such as French or Spanish , Occitan does not have

11439-617: The one that ended with Charles Martel 's victory at the Battle of Tours , also called the Battle of Poitiers). The Frankish conquest of Septimania followed in the 750s, and a quasi-independent County of Toulouse emerged within the Carolingian sub-kingdom of Aquitaine by the late 8th century. The Battle of Toulouse of 844 , pitting Charles the Bald against Pepin II of Aquitaine , was key in

11562-585: The other. Finally, a late intervention by King Louis VIII of France in 1226 tipped the balance in favour of the crusaders, resulting in the submission of Count Raymond VII to the French Crown and the end of the independence of the County of Toulouse. But beyond the military crusade, this struggle took on several important aspects for the city of Toulouse: In 1271, Joan of Toulouse and her husband Alphonse of Poitiers died without heirs. Toulouse, which since

11685-484: The other. Nonetheless, specialists commonly divide Occitan into six main dialects: The northern and easternmost dialects have more morphological and phonetic features in common with the Gallo-Italic and Oïl languages (e.g. nasal vowels ; loss of final consonants; initial cha/ja- instead of ca/ga- ; uvular ⟨r⟩ ; the front-rounded sound /ø/ instead of a diphthong, /w/ instead of /l/ before

11808-463: The outside of buildings, as a cheaper substitute for stone. Indian sculpture made heavy use of terracotta from as early as the Indus Valley civilization (with stone and metal sculpture being rather rare), and in more sophisticated areas had largely abandoned modeling for using molds by the 1st century BCE. This allows relatively large figures, nearly up to life-size, to be made, especially in

11931-488: The population of the city made it the second or third largest city in France. It was estimated to have 50,000 inhabitants, a figure it would not regain until the 18th century. In 1562, the French Wars of Religion began and Toulouse became an ultra-Catholic stronghold in a predominantly Protestant region, the era of economic prosperity came to an end. The governor of Languedoc, Henri II de Montmorency , who had rebelled,

12054-549: The predominantly Basque -speaking general population. Their language became the status language chosen by the Navarrese kings, nobility, and upper classes for official and trade purposes in the period stretching from the early 13th century to the late 14th century. Written administrative records were in a koiné based on the Languedocien dialect from Toulouse with fairly archaic linguistic features. Evidence survives of

12177-610: The province's history (a late addition to the Kingdom of France), though even there the language is little spoken outside the homes of the rural elderly. The village of Artix is notable for having elected to post street signs in the local language. The area where Occitan was historically dominant has approximately 16 million inhabitants. Recent research has shown it may be spoken as a first language by approximately 789,000 people in France , Italy , Spain and Monaco . In Monaco, Occitan coexists with Monégasque Ligurian , which

12300-517: The region of Provence , historically was used for Occitan as a whole, for "in the eleventh, the twelfth, and sometimes also the thirteenth centuries, one would understand under the name of Provence the whole territory of the old Provincia romana Gallia Narbonensis and even Aquitaine ". The term first came into fashion in Italy . Currently, linguists use the terms Provençal and Limousin strictly to refer to specific varieties within Occitan, using

12423-424: The reputation of the material. By about 1930, the widespread use of concrete and Modernist architecture largely ended the use of terracotta in architecture. As compared to bronze sculpture , terracotta uses a far simpler and quicker process for creating the finished work with much lower material costs. The easier task of modelling, typically with a limited range of knives and wooden shaping tools, but mainly using

12546-532: The royalty that it entailed. In 1369, pope Urban V attributed to the Dominican church of the Jacobins of Toulouse the bones of the Dominican theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas , perhaps to honor the city that had been the cradle of the Dominican order at the beginning of the previous century. The political and economic situation improved by the middle of the 15th century. In 1443 King Charles VII established

12669-495: The second parliament of France after that of Paris. Reinforcing its place as an administrative and judicial center, the city grew richer, participating in the trade of Bordeaux wine with England, as well as cereals and textiles. A major source of income was the production and export of pastel , a blue dye made from woad . Toulouse suffered several fires, but it was in 1463 that the Great Fire of Toulouse broke out, ravaging

12792-574: The structure together. Terracotta has been a medium for art since the Harappan civilization, although techniques used differed in each time period. In the Mauryan times, they were mainly figures of mother goddesses, indicating a fertility cult. Moulds were used for the face, whereas the body was hand-modelled. In the Shungan times, a single mould was used to make the entire figure and depending upon

12915-764: The summer months prevents the city from being classified in the Mediterranean climate zone. The Garonne Valley was a central point for trade between the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic since at least the Iron Age . The historical name of the city, Tolosa (Τολῶσσα in Greek , and of its inhabitants, the Tolosates , first recorded in the 2nd century BC), is of unknown meaning or origin, possibly from Aquitanian or Iberian , but it has also been connected to

13038-632: The term would have been in use orally for some time after the decline of Latin, as far as historical records show, the Italian medieval poet Dante was the first to have recorded the term lingua d'oc in writing. In his De vulgari eloquentia , he wrote in Latin, "nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil" ("for some say òc , others sì , yet others say oïl "), thereby highlighting three major Romance literary languages that were well known in Italy, based on each language's word for "yes",

13161-613: The time: in 1762 its powerful parliament sentenced Jean Calas to death. The philosopher Voltaire then accused the Parlement of Toulouse of religious intolerance (Calas was a Protestant), gave the affair a European repercussion and succeeded in having the judgment of the parliament quashed by the King's Council, which did much damage to the reputation of the parliament. It was on this occasion that Voltaire published one of his major philosophical works: his famous Treatise on Tolerance . With

13284-427: The town buildings of Victorian Birmingham , England. Terracotta was marketed as a miracle material, largely impervious to the elements. Terracotta, however, can be damaged by water penetration, exposure, or failure through faulty design or installation. An excessive faith in the durability of the material led to shortcuts in design and execution, coupled with a belief that the material did not require maintenance, tainted

13407-472: The treaty of 1229 had been subordinate to the kingdom of France , no longer had a count and was annexed to the royal domain . The installation of numerous royal officers and the development of trade and crafts, which favoured the social ascension of merchants, renewed the city's elites. In 1298, King Philip the Fair greatly facilitated the possibility of ennobling the capitouls, whose council, renewed every year,

13530-484: Was a sculptor who founded a family dynasty specializing in glazed and painted terracotta, especially large roundels which were used to decorate the exterior of churches and other buildings. These used the same techniques as contemporary maiolica and other tin-glazed pottery . Other sculptors included Pietro Torrigiano (1472–1528), who produced statues, and in England busts of the Tudor royal family. The unglazed busts of

13653-512: Was at the center of a large cereal-growing plain, was distinguished by its numerous mills that took advantage of the force of the Garonne, among which the Bazacle Milling Company was the first recorded European joint-stock company. At the beginning of the thirteenth century the County of Toulouse was caught up in another crusade that would last twenty years (1209-1229), of which it was the target this time. The reason for this

13776-469: Was created in 2001 to better coordinate transport, infrastructure and economic policies between the city of Toulouse and its immediate independent suburbs. It succeeds a previous district which had been created in 1992 with fewer powers than the current council. It combines the city of Toulouse and 24 independent communes , covering an area of 380 km (147 sq mi), totalling a population of 583,229 inhabitants (as of 1999 census), 67% of whom live in

13899-444: Was done], etc.", such as Spanish sí , Eastern Lombard sé , Italian sì , or Portuguese sim . In modern Catalan, as in modern Spanish, sí is usually used as a response, although the language retains the word oi , akin to òc , which is sometimes used at the end of yes–no questions and also in higher register as a positive response. French uses si to answer "yes" in response to questions that are asked in

14022-464: Was executed in 1632 in the Capitole in the presence of King Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu . In 1666, Pierre-Paul Riquet started the construction of the Canal du Midi which links Toulouse to the Mediterranean Sea, and is considered one of the greatest construction works of the 17th century. Completed in 1681, the canal stimulated the economy of Toulouse by promoting the export of cereals and

14145-484: Was given the official Roman Catholic Imprimatur by vicar general A. Estellon. The literary renaissance of the late 19th century (in which the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature winner, Frédéric Mistral, among others, was involved) was attenuated by World War I , when (in addition to the disruption caused by any major war) many Occitan speakers spent extended periods of time alongside French-speaking comrades. Because

14268-571: Was increasingly made up of rich merchants. The first half of the 14th century was a prosperous period, despite the dismemberment in 1317 of the very large bishopric of Toulouse (which lost two thirds of its area and a large part of its income, a loss only partially compensated by its elevation to the rank of archbishopric), and the episode of the Shepherds' Crusade which brought a pogrom against Toulouse's Jewish population in 1320. In 1335, Toulouse had between 35,000 and 40,000 inhabitants. In 1323,

14391-493: Was much easier to work than carved materials, and allowed a more spontaneous approach by the artist. Claude Michel (1738–1814), known as Clodion , was an influential pioneer in France . John Michael Rysbrack (1694–1770), a Flemish portrait sculptor working in England, sold his terracotta modelli for larger works in stone, and produced busts only in terracotta. In the next century the French sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse made many terracotta pieces, but possibly

14514-401: Was no real industrial revolution in 19th century Toulouse. The most important industries were the gunpowder factory, to meet military needs, and the tobacco factory. In 1856 the railway arrived in Toulouse and the city was modernised: the ramparts were replaced by large boulevards, and major avenues such as the rue d'Alsace-Lorraine and the rue de Metz opened up the historic centre. In 1875,

14637-521: Was slightly lower than the growth rate registered between the 1990 and 2009 censuses. Toulouse is the fourth most populated city in France, after Paris , Marseille and Lyon , and the fifth most populated metropolitan area after Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and Lille . Fueled by booming aerospace and high-tech industries, the Toulouse metropolitan area's population grew by 57.3% between the 1990 and 2020 censuses (within its 2020 borders), which means +1.52% per year on average during those 30 years, compared with

14760-543: Was still an everyday language for most of the rural population of southern France well into the 20th century, it is now spoken by about 100,000 people in France according to 2012 estimates. There is a movement in regions of France where Occitan was widely spoken to introduce educational programs to encourage young people in these regions to learn the language. According to the 1999 census, there were 610,000 native speakers (almost all of whom were also native French speakers) and perhaps another million people with some exposure to

14883-495: Was the development of Catharism in the south of France, which the Pope Innocent III wanted to eradicate by all possible means. After an initial victory of the crusaders led by Simon de Montfort who defeated the combined forces of Count Raymond VI of Toulouse and King Peter II of Aragon at the Battle of Muret , the following years saw the fate of the county of Toulouse swing alternately in favour of one party or

15006-466: Was the maternal language of the English queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and kings Richard I (who wrote troubadour poetry) and John . With the gradual imposition of French royal power over its territory, Occitan declined in status from the 14th century on. The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) decreed that the langue d'oïl (French – though at the time referring to the Francien language and not

15129-756: Was transformed into the Royal Academy of the Floral Games ( Académie des Jeux Floraux ), still active today, by king Louis XIV . The 14th century also saw a significant increase in the influence of the University of Toulouse, particularly following the move of the papacy from Rome to Avignon. Many law graduates from the University of Toulouse had brilliant careers in the Avignon curia , several became cardinals and three became popes: John XXII , Innocent VI and Urban V . These powerful prelates financed

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