Online Encyclopedia

CASTRES

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 483 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CASTRES  , a

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town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Tarn, 29 M . S.S.E. of
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Albi on a branch
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line of the
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Southern railway . Pop . (1906) town, 19,864; commune, 28,272 . Castres, the busiest and most populous town of its department, is intersected from north to south by the Agout; the
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river is fringed by old houses the upper stories of which project over its waters . Wide boulevards
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traverse the west of the town, which is also rendered attractive by numerous fountains fed by a
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fine aqueduct hewn in the rock . The church of St Benoit, once a
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cathedral, and the most important of the churches of Castres,
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dates only from the 17th and 18th centuries . The hotel de
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vine, which contains a museum and the municipal library, occupies the former bishop's palace,designed by Jules Mansart in the 17th century; the Romanesque tower beside it is the only survival of an old
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Benedictine abbey . The town possesses some old mansions of which the hotel de Nayrac, of the Renaissance, is of most
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interest . Castres has a sub-prefecture, tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a chamber of commerce, a branch of the
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bank of France and two hospitals . There are also communal colleges for boys and girls, a school of artillery and school of draughtsmanship . The
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industrial establishments include manufactories of earthenware and
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porcelain and metal-foundries, and tanning, leather-dressing, turnery, the making of wooden shoes and furniture, the
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weaving of woollen and other fabrics, dyeing, and the manufacture of machinery, paper and
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parchment are carried on .

Castres

grew up round a Benedictine abbey, which is believed to have been founded in the 7th century . It was a place of considerable importance as early as the 12th century, and ranked as the second town of the Albigenses . During the Albigensian crusade it surrendered of its own accord to Simon de Montfort; and in 1356 it was raised to a countship by King John of France . On the confiscation of the possessions of the D'
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Armagnac
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family, to which it had passed, it was bestowed by Louis XI. on Boffilo del Giudice, but the appointment led to so much disagreement that the countship was
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united to the
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crown by Francis I. in 1519 . In the
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wars of the latter
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part of the 16th century the inhabitants sided with the
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Protestant party, fortified the town, and established an
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independent republic . They were brought to terms, however, by Louis XIII., and forced to dismantle their fortifications; and the town was made the seat of the chambre de l'edit, or chamber for the investigation of the affairs of the Protestants, afterwards transferred to Casteinaudary (in 1679) . The bishopric of Castres, which had been established by Pope John XXII. in 1317, was abolished at the Revolution .

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