Toulon

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For other uses, see Toulon (disambiguation)}}}.

Panorama of Toulon area

Satellite view

Coat of Arms of Toulon

view of Toulon harbour around 1750, by Joseph Vernet.

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Toulon (Tolon in Provençal) is a city in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur région, Toulon is the préfecture (capital) of the Var département, in the former province of Provence.

Population of the city (commune) at the 1999 census was 160,639 inhabitants (168,200 inhabitants as of February 2004 estimates). Population of the whole metropolitan area (in French: aire urbaine) at the 1999 census was 564,823 inhabitants.

Contents

1 Military role
2 Ecclesiastical history
3 Culture
4 Literary
5 Sports
6 Miscellaneous
7 Sources and external Links

Military role

The military harbour was fortified by Vauban. It witnessed the ?naval Battle of Toulon (1707) and Battle of Toulon (1744)

Napoleon Bonaparte rose to fame after his decisive role at the Siege of Toulon in 1793.

After the Allied landings in North Africa (Operation Torch) the German Army occupied southern France, leading to the scuttling of the French Fleet at Toulon 27 November 1942.

Today, Toulon is the major naval centre on France's Mediterreanean coast home of the French Navy airplane carrier "Charles de Gaulle" and its battle group. The French Mediterranean Fleet is based in Toulon.

Ecclesiastical history

The legend which states that a certain Cleon, who accompanied St. Lazarus to Gaul, was the founder of the Church of Toulon, is based on an apocryphal document composed in the fourteenth century and ascribed to a sixth-century bishop named Didier.

Honoratus and Gratianus, according to the "Gallia Christiana", were the first bishops of Toulon whose names are known to history, but Duchesne gives Augustalis as the first historical bishop. He assisted at councils in 441 and 442 and signed in 449 and 450 the letters addressed to Pope Leo I from the province of Arles.

St. Cyprian, disciple and biographer of St. Cæsarius of Arles, is also mentioned as a Bishop of Toulon. His episcopate, begun in 524, had not come to an end in 541; he converted to Catholicism two Visigoth chiefs, Mandrier and Flavian, who became anchorites and martyrs on the peninsula of Mandrier.

[Toulon Cathedral:[link]]

Culture

[Cuverville] is Toulon's satirical paper, from the nickname of a statue standing on Toulon harbour looking at the sea (cul vers ville = "ass to the city").
[Yaquoi] is Toulon's cultural webzine.
[Toulonnais.com] : the monuments, the history, the plans of the city of Toulon. Many photographies inside.

Literary

Toulon figures prominently in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. It is the location of infamous prison in which the protagonist Jean Valjean spends 19 years in hard labor. Toulon is also the birthplace of the novel's antagonist, Javert, and the place where Valjean and Javert first meet.

Sports

The region is famous for being the host of the finals of the annual Toulon Tournament - a soccer tournament of under 20 national players from around the world.

Miscellaneous

Toulon was the birthplace of:

Sources and external Links

(incomplete)

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia.
[Official website]
[Map of Toulon]

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