Toulouse
a city of France, the capital anciently of Languedoc, and now of the department of Haute-Garonne; 160 miles S. E. of Bordeaux and 466 S. by W. of Paris. It is situated in a broad and pleasant plain, on the right bank of the Garonne river, with the Canal du Midi sweeping round its E. and N sides.
The Garonne is crossed here by a beautiful bridge (1543-1626), nearly 300 yards long, which connects Toulouse with the suburb of St. Cyprien. The city, with the exception of the S. faubourg, is not particularly handsome (though the broad quays have rather an imposing appearance), nor has it many fine public buildings. One may note, however, the cathedral, containing the tombs of the TOURCOING Counts of Toulouse; the Capitole, or town hall (1769); the church of St. Sernin (11th to 15th century); and the Musée, with its interesting collection of antiquities, forming an almost uninterrupted chain in the history of art, from the Gallo-Roman to the Renaissance period. Toulouse is the seat of an archbishop, has a university academy, an academy of "floral games" (Société des Jeux Floraux), claiming to date from a troubadours' contest in 1323, academies of arts, sciences, antiquities, etc., schools of law, medicine, and artillery, an observatory, botanic garden, and a public library of 200,000 volumes. Toulouse manufactures woolens, silks, leather, cannon, steam engines, tobacco, brandy, etc., and carries on a great trade with Spain. Its liver and truffle pies are celebrated throughout the S. of France. Pop. about 150,000.
TOLOSA was, in Cæsar's time, a city within the limits of the Roman provincia, and had been originally the capital of the Volce Tectosages, a Gallic tribe noted for its wealth and consequence. In A. D. 412 the Visigoths made it the capital of their kingdom; and after the time of Charlemagne it was under the sway of counts, who made themselves independent about 920, but in 1271 the "county of Toulouse" was reunited to the crown of France by Philippe le Hardi. Its literary celebrity reaches as far back as the Roman empire. Early in the Middle Ages, under the Counts of Toulouse, it became a seat of Provençal poetry, and it suffered terribly in Simon de Montfort's crusade against the Albigenses. The Parliament of Toulouse had a great reputation, but unhappily it is likely to be remembered by one of its most iniquitous decisions, that delivered in the case of the Calas family. In the battle of Toulouse (April 10, 1814) the French under Soult were defeated by Wellington. Cujacius was born, and Fermat died, in Toulouse.