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Puy
Encyclopedia Britannica
PUY, Le, or more precisely LePuy en Velay, chief town of the department of Haute-Loire, France, 352 miles from Paris by rail and 270 in a direct line, rises in the form of an amphitheatre at a height of 2050 feet above sea-level upon Mont Anis, the hill that divides the left bank of the Dolézon from the right bank of the Borne (a rapid stream which joins the Loire 3 miles below). From the new town, which lies east and west in the valley of the Dolézon, the traveller ascends the old feudal and ecclesiastical town through narrow steep streets, paved with slippery pebbles of lava, to the cathedral commanded by the fantastic pinnacle of Mont Corneille. Mont Corneille, which is 433 feet above the Place de Breuil (in the lower town), is a steep rock of volcanic breccia, surmounted by a colossal iron statue of the Virgin (53 feet high, standing on a pedestal 23 feet high), cast after a model by Bonassieux out of 213 guns taken at Sebastopol. The monument is composed of eighty parts fitted together and weighs 98∣ tons. Another statue, that of a bishop of Puy, also sculptured by Bonassieux, faces that of the Virgin. From the platform of Mont Corneille a magnificent panoramic view is obtained of the town, and of the volcanic mountains, which make this region one of the most interesting parts of France. The Romanesque cathedral (Notre Dame), dating from the 6th to the 12th century, has a particoloured façade of white sandstone and black volcanic breccia, which is reached by a flight of sixty steps, and consists of three tiers, the lowest composed of three high arcades opening into the porch beneath the nave of the church; above are three windows lighting the nave; and these in turn are surmounted by three gables, two of which, those to the right and the left, are of open ...work. Two side porches lead to the cathedral by the transept The bell-tower (184 feet), which rises behind the choir in seven stories, is one of the most beautiful examples of the Romanesque transition period. The bays of the nave are covered in by octagonal cupolas; the central cupola forms a lantern. The choir and transepts are barrel-vaulted. The cathedral has mural paintings of the 12th and 13th centuries, an open-work Romanesque screen surrounding the sanctuary, and a manuscript Bible belonging to the 9th century. The cloister, to the north of the choir, is striking owing to its variously-coloured materials and elegant shafts; Viollet le Duc considers one of its galleries to belong to the oldest known type of cathedral cloister (8th and 9th centuries). Connected with the cloister are remains of fortifications of the 13th century, by which it was separated from the rest of the city. Near the cathedral the baptistery of St John (4th century), built on the foundations of a Roman building, is surrounded by walls and numerous remains of the period, partly uncovered by recent excavations. The church of St Lawrence (14th century) contains the remains of Du Guesclin. Le Puy possesses fragmentary remains of its old line of fortifications, among them a machicolated tower, which has been restored, and a few curious old houses dating from the 12th to the 17th century. Of the modern monuments the statue of La Fayette and a fountain in the Place de Breuil, executed in marble, bronze, and syenite, may be specially mentioned. The museum, named after Crozatier, a native metal-worker to whose munificence it principally owes its existence, contains antiquities, engravings, a collection of lace, and ethnographical and natural history collections. Among the curiosities of Puy should be noted the church of St Michel d’Aiguille, beside the gate of the town, perched on an isolated rock like Mont Corneille, the top of which is reached by a staircase of 271 steps. The church dates from the end of the 10th century and its chancel is still older. The steeple is of the same type as that of the cathedral. Three miles from Puy are the ruins of the Château de Polignac, one of the most important feudal strongholds of France. The population of Puy in 1881 was 18,567. The trade is chiefly in cattle, woollens, grains, and vegetables. The principal manufacture is that of laces and blondes (in woollen, linen, cotton, silk, gold, and silver threads), which is carried on by 130,000 workwomen in the neighbourhood, the yearly turnover being £1,000,000. The town is connected by rail with St Étienne and Lyons, and also with Brioude on the line from Clermont-Ferrand to Nîmes.
It is not known whether Le Puy existed previously to the Roman invasion. Towards the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century it became the capital of the country of the Vellavi, at which period the bishopric, originally at Revession, now St Paulien, was transferred hither. Gregory of Tours speaks of it by the name of Anicium, because a chapel “ad Deum” had been built on the mountain, whence the name of Mont Adidon or Ani, which it still retains. In the 10th century it was called Podium Sanctae Mariae, whence Le Puy. In the Middle Ages there was a double enclosure, one for the cloister, the other for the town. The sanctuary of Notre Dame was much frequented by pilgrims, and the city grew famous and populous. Rivalries between the bishops (who held directly of the see of Rome) and the lords of Polignac, revolts of the town against the royal authority, and the encroachments of the feudal superiors on municipal prerogatives often disturbed the quiet of the town. The Saracens in the 8th century, the Routiers in the 12th, the English in the 14th, the Burgundians in the 15th, successively ravaged the neighbourhood. Le Puy sent the flower of its chivalry to the crusades in 1096, and Raymond d’Aiguille, called d’Agiles, one of its sons, was their historian. Many councils and various assemblies of the states of Languedoc met within its walls; popes and sovereigns, among the latter Charlemagne and Francis I., visited its sanctuary. Pestilence and the religious wars put an end to its prosperity. Long occupied by the Leaguers, it did not submit to Henry J V. until many years after his accession.
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 20, p. 118
[1,064 words — estimated reading time: 7 minutes]
[1,064 words — estimated reading time: 7 minutes]
Puy de dÔme
Encyclopedia Britannica
PUY DE DÔME, a department of central France, four-fifths of which belonged to Basse-Auvergne, one-sixth to Bourbonnais, and the remainder to Forez (Lyonnais), lies between 45° 17' and 46° 16' N. lat. and 2° 23' and 4° E. long. It is bounded on the N. by Allier, on the E. by Loire, on the S. by Haute-Loire and Cantal, and on the W. by Corrèze and Creuse. The chief town, Clermont-Ferrand, is 217 miles south of Paris in a direct line; and the department ta⅛es its name from a volcanic cone (4800 feet) which overlooks it. A meteorological observatory has stood on the summit, on the site of an old Roman temple, since 1876. The highest point of the department. the Puy de Sancy (6188 feet), is also the most elevated peak of central France; it commands the group of the volcanic Monts Dore, so remarkable for their rocky corries, their erosion valleys, their trap dykes and orgues of basalt, their lakes sleeping in the depths of ancient craters or confined in the valleys by streams of lava, and their wide plains of pasture-land. The Puy de Sancy, forming part of the watershed, gives rise on its northern slope to the Dordogne, and on the east to the Couze, a sub-tributary of the Loire, through the Allier. The Monts Dore are joined to the mountains of Cantal by the non-volcanic group of the Cézallier, of which the highest peak, the Luguet (5101 feet), rises on the confines of Puy de Dome and Cantal. On the north the Monts Dore are continued by a plateau of the mean height of from 3000 to 3500 feet, upon which are seen sixty cones raised by volcanic outbursts in former times. These are the Monts Dôme, which extend from south to north as far as Riom, the most remarkable being the Puy de Dôme and the Puy de Pariou, the latter having a crater more than 300 feet in depth. To ...the east of the department, along the confines of Loire, are the Monts du Forez, rising to 5380 feet and still in part crowned with forests. Between these mountains and the Domes extends the fertile plain of Limagne. The drainage of Puy de Dôme is divided between the Loire, by its affluents the Allier and the Cher, and the Gironde, by the Dordogne. The Allier traverses the department from south to north, receiving on its right the Dore, which falls into the Allier at the northern boundary and lowest level of the department (879 feet); on its left are the Alagnon from the Cantal, the two Couzes from the Luguet and the Monts Dore, and the Sioule, the most important of all, which drains the north-west slopes of the Monts Dore and Dôme, and joins the Allier beyond the limits of the department. The Cher forms for a short space the boundary between the departments of Puy de Dôme and Creuse, close to that of Allier. The Dordogne, while still scarcely formed, flows past Mont-Dore-les-Bains and La Bourboule and is lost in a deep valley which divides this department from that of Corrèze. None of these streams are navigable, but boats can be used on the Allier during floods. The climate of Puy de Dôme is usually very severe, owing to its high level and its distance from the sea; the mildest air is found in the northern valleys, where the elevation is least. During summer the hills about Clermont-Ferrand, exposed to the sun, become all the hotter because their black volcanic soil absorbs its rays. On the mountains from 24 to 36 inches of rain fall in the year, but only half this amount (18 inches) in Limagne, around which the mountains arrest the clouds. Nevertheless the soil of this plain, consisting of alluvial deposits of volcanic origin, and watered by torrents and streams from the mountains, makes it one of the richest regions of France.
Of a total area of 1,964,685 acres 925,146 are arable, 266,226 meadow and grass land, 232,210 under wood, 78,006 under vines, while 397,663 are moorland or coarse pasturage. Out of a total of 566,064 inhabitants 392,177 are engaged in agriculture. Puy de Dôme possesses 18,500 horses, 1600 mules, 4850 asses, 16,100 oxen or bulls, 174,000 cows or heifers, 60,500 calves, 309,900 sheep, 90,500 pigs, 22,550 goats, and 25,900 beehives, which in 1881 produced 95 tons of honey and 33 tons of wax. In 1882 there were produced 369,313 quarters of wheat, 493,134 of rye, 197,241 of barley, 320,138 of oats, 25,172 of buckwheat, 5,172,408 bushels of potatoes, and in 1881 234,504 bushels of dried vegetables, 1,986,208 bushels of beetroot, 33 tons of tobacco, 1625 tons of hemp, 21 tons of flax, 26,176 bushels of rape-seed, a great quantity of colza oil, and 13,054,052 gallons of wine. The Limagne produces fruits of all kinds—apricots, cherries, pears, apples, and walnuts, and there are also plantations of mulberry trees. The department possesses numerous mineral treasures. The coal-mines, occupying a surfacearea of 7660 acres, employ 1381 men, and in 1882 produced 188,234 tons. The most important, at Brassac on the Allier, on the borders of Haute-Loire, employ 1200 or 1500 men (in the two departments). Next come those of St Eloi near the department of Allier, and of Bourg-Lastic and Messeix on the borders of Corrèze. The department also works peat, asphalt, and bituminous schists. Mines of argentiferous lead employ 640 men and produce 33,695 tons of lead or silver, worth £45,600. The most important mines and foundries are at Pontgibaud on the Sioule. Copper, arsenic, iron, antimony, barium sulphate, alum, manganese, white lead, sulphur, sulphuretted zinc, loadstone, and (of precious stones) amethysts, jacinths, rubies, agates, chalcedonies, opals, are also found in the department. Quarries of porphyry and lava are worked (Volvic with 900 men), as well as marl, limestone, and gypsum. The hot springs of Mont Dore, known in the days of the Romans, contain a mixture of arsenic and iron bicarbonates, and are used especially for affections of the respiratory organs. The waters of La Bourboule, containing sodium chlorides and bicarbonates, are particularly rich in arsenic, and efficacious against affections of*the lymphatic glands, scrofula, diseases of the skin and air-passages, and rheumatism. The springs of St Nectaire, containing sodium and iron chlorides and bicarbonates, are efficacious in liver complaints, rheumatism, and gravel. Some of them are petrifying, as the spring of St Allyre at Clermont-Ferrand. The waters of Royat, in use in the time of the Romans, containing sodium and iron chlorides and bicarbonates, sparkling and rich in lithia, are used in cases of anaemia, rheumatism, gout, diabetes, and gravel. The waters of Châteauneuf (on the Sioule), also known to the Romans, contain iron bicarbonates and are resorted to for skin diseases. Those of Châtelguyon, like the waters of Carlsbad and Marienbad, are used for disorders of the digestive organs, congestions of the liver, rheumatism, &c. The waters of Chateldon are used for the table. There are other chalybeate waters at St Martial, Beaulieu, Pontgibaud, St Myon, St Maurice, Ariane, and many other mineral springs of varied character. Manufactures are for the most part grouped around Thiers, which produces a large amount of cheap cutlery, pasteboards (especially adapted for stamps or playingcards), and leather; 20,000 workmen are thus employed, and the annual turn-over amounts to £1,200,000. The department contains important paper-mills, factories for lace and braid (in the mountains), for buntings, and camlets. Those for wool, cotton, and hemp contain 3500 spindles and more than 400 looms. There are wool-carding works and factories for linens, cloths, and counterpanes,—also silk-mills, tanneries, manufactories for chamois and other leathers, for caoutchouc, important sugar-works, starch-works, manufactures of edible pastes with a reputation as high as those of Italy, and manufactures of fruit-preserves. The saw-mills and the cheese industry in the mountains complete the list, which includes 201 establishments employing 75,553 persons. The department exports grain, fruits, cattle, wines, cheese, wood, and mineral waters. Traffic is carried on over 294 miles of Government roads, 9591 miles of other roads, and 178 miles of railway. The department is crossed from north to south by the railway from Paris to Nîmes, and that of Vichy to Thiers; from west to east by that from Bordeaux to Lyons by Tulle, Clermont-Ferrand, and Thiers, with branches from Eygurande to Largnac and from Vertaison to Billom. It is skirted on the north-west by the line from Montluçon to Gannat, with a branch line for goods to the mines of St Eloi. Twenty thousand inhabitants of the department, belonging chiefly to the district of Ambert, leave it during winter and find work elsewhere as navvies, chimney-sweeps, pit-sawyers, &c. The department in 1881 contained 566,064 inhabitants and includes five arrondissements— Clermont-Ferrand (g.v.), Ambert (town, 3940 inhabitants), Issoire (6137), Riom (9590), Thiers (10,583)—50 cantons, and 467 communes. It is attached to the bishopric of Clermont-Ferrand and to the 13th Army Corps in the same town; the superior court is at Riom.
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 20, p. 119 — signed G. ME.
[1,584 words — estimated reading time: 10 minutes]
[1,584 words — estimated reading time: 10 minutes]
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