Clermont-Ferrand sits on the plain ofLimagne in theMassif Central and is surrounded by a major industrial area. The city is known for the chain ofvolcanoes, theChaîne des Puys, which surround it. This includes the dormant volcanoPuy de Dôme, 10 kilometres (6 miles) away, one of the highest in the surrounding area, which is topped by communications towers and visible from the city. Clermont-Ferrand has been listed as a "tectonic hotspot" since July 2018 on theUNESCO World Heritage List.
Today Clermont-Ferrand hosts theClermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (Festival du Court-Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand), one of the world's leading festivals forshort films. It is also home to the corporate headquarters ofMichelin, the global tyre company founded in the city more than 100 years ago. With a quarter of the municipal population being students, and some 6,000 researchers, Clermont-Ferrand is the first city in France to join theUNESCO Learning City Network.
Along with its highly distinctive black lava stoneGothic styledCathedral, Clermont-Ferrand's other famous sites include thepublic squarePlace de Jaude, in which stands a grand statue ofVercingetorix astride a warhorse and brandishing a sword. The inscription reads in French:J'ai pris les armes pour la liberté de tous,lit. 'I took up arms for the liberty of all'). This statue was sculpted byFrédéric Bartholdi, who also created theStatue of Liberty.
Only remaining Gallo-Roman wall of the Vasso Galate temple, Clermont-Ferrand.
Clermont-Ferrand's first name wasAugustonemetum, Latin for "sanctuary forAugustus", orCivitas Arvernorum (town of the Arverni people).[8] It originated on the central knoll where the cathedral is situated today, overlooking the capital ofGaulish Arvernis [fr]. The fortified castle of Clarus Mons gave its name to the whole town in 848, to which the small episcopal town ofMontferrand was attached in 1731, together taking the name of Clermont-Ferrand. The amalgamation of the two towns was decreed byLouis XIII and confirmed byLouis XV.[9] The old part of Clermont is delimited by the route of the ramparts as they existed at the end of the Middle Ages.
Clermont ranks among theoldest cities of France. The first known mention was by the Greek geographerStrabo, who called it the "metropolis of theArverni" (meaning theiroppidumcivitas or tribal capital). The city was at that time calledNemessos – aGaulish word for a sacred forest, and was situated on the mound where the cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand stands today. Somewhere in the area around Nemossos, the Arverni chieftainVercingetorix (later to head a unified Gallic resistance to theRoman invasion led byJulius Caesar) was born around 72 BC. Nemossos was situated not far from theplateau of Gergovia, where Vercingetorix repulsed the Roman assault at theBattle of Gergovia in 52 BC. After the Roman conquest, the city became known asAugustonemetum.[10]
The city became the seat of a bishop in the 5th century, at the time of the bishopNamatius, who built a cathedral here described byGregory of Tours. Clermont went through a dark period after the disappearance of theRoman Empire and during theHigh Middle Ages was pillaged by the peoples who invaded Gaul. Between 471 and 475,Auvergne was often the target ofVisigothic expansion, and the city was frequently besieged, including once byEuric. Although defended bySidonius Apollinaris, at the head of the diocese from 468 to 486, and thepatricianEcdicius, the city was ceded to the Visigoths by emperorJulius Nepos in 475 and remained part of the Visigothic kingdom until 507. A generation later, it became part of theKingdom of the Franks. On 8 November 535 thefirst Council of Clermont opened at Arvernis (Clermont), with fifteen bishops participating, includingCaesarius of Arles,Nizier of Lyons, the Bishop ofTrier, andSaint Hilarius, Bishop ofMende. The Council issued 16 decrees. The second canon reiterated the principle that the granting of episcopal dignity must be made according to merit and not as a result of intrigues.
In 570, Bishop Avitus ordered theJews of the city, who numbered over 500, to accept Christian baptism or be expelled.[11]
In 848, the city was renamedClairmont, after the castle Clarus Mons. During this era, it was an episcopal city ruled by its bishop. Clermont was not spared by the Vikings at the time of the weakening of theCarolingian Empire: it was ravaged by the Normans underHastein in 862 and 864 and, while its bishop Sigon carried out reconstruction work, again in 898 (or 910, according to some sources). BishopÉtienne II built a new Romanesque cathedral which was consecrated in 946. It was almost entirely replaced by the current Gothic cathedral, though the crypt survives and the towers were only replaced in the 19th century.
Clermont was the starting point of theFirst Crusade, in whichChristendom sought to retake Muslim-ruledJerusalem.Pope Urban II called for the crusade in 1095 at theSecond Council of Clermont. In 1120, following repeated crises between the counts ofAuvergne and the bishops ofClermont and in order to counteract the clergy's power, the counts founded the rival city of Montferrand on a mound next to the fortifications of Clermont, on the model of the new cities of theMidi that appeared in the 12th and 13th centuries. Until theearly modern period, the two remained separate cities: Clermont, an episcopal city; Montferrand, acomital one.
Clermont became a royal city in 1551, and in 1610, the inseparable property of the French Crown. On 15 April 1630 the Edict of Troyes (the First Edict of Union) joined the two cities of Clermont andMontferrand. This union was confirmed in 1731 byLouis XV with the Second Edict of Union. At this time, Montferrand was no more than asatellite city of Clermont, and it remained so until the beginning of the 20th century. Wishing to retain its independence, Montferrand made three demands for independence, in 1789, 1848, and 1863. TheHôtel de Ville (City Hall) was completed in 1844.[12]
In the 20th century, the construction of theMichelin factories and of city gardens, which shaped modern Clermont-Ferrand, united the two cities, although two distinct downtowns survive and Montferrand retains a strong identity.
Clermont-Ferrand has anoceanic climate (Cfb). The city is in the rain shadow of the Chaîne des Puys, giving it one of the driest climates in metropolitan France, except for a few places around the Mediterranean Sea. The mountains also block most of the oceanic influence of the Atlantic, which creates a much more continental climate than in nearby cities west or north of the mountains, likeLimoges andMontluçon. Thus the city has comparatively cold winters and hot summers. From November to March, frost is very frequent, and the city, being at the bottom of a valley, is frequently subject totemperature inversion, in which the mountains are sunny and warm, and the plain is freezing cold and cloudy. Snow is quite common, although usually short-lived and light. Summer temperatures often exceed 35 °C (95 °F), with sometimes violent thunderstorms. The highest temperature was reached in 2019 of 40.9 °C (105.6 °F) while the lowest was −29.0 °C (−20.2 °F).
Climate data for Clermont-Ferrand, elevation: 331 m (1,086 ft), 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1923–present
Clermont-Ferrand has two famous churches. One isNotre-Dame du Port, aRomanesque church which was built during the 11th and 12th centuries (thebell tower was rebuilt during the 19th century). It was nominated as aWorld Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1998. The other isClermont-Ferrand Cathedral (Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption de Clermont-Ferrand), built inGothic style between the 13th and the 19th centuries.
Food production and processing as well as engineering are major employers in the area, as are the many research facilities of leading computer software andpharmaceutical companies.
The city's industry was for a long time linked to the Frenchtyre manufacturerMichelin, which created theradial tyre and expanded from Clermont-Ferrand to become a worldwide leader in its industry. For most of the 20th century, it had extensive factories throughout the city, employing up to 30,000 workers. While the company has maintained its headquarters in the city, most of the manufacturing is now done in foreign countries. This downsizing took place gradually, allowing the city to court new investment in other industries, thus avoiding the fate of many post-industrial cities and keeping it a very wealthy and prosperous area home to many high-income executives.
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One of the 48 publicfountains with the cathedral in background. The fountain and the cathedral are made with the typical black volcanic stone of the area, named "pierre de Volvic".
Clermont-Ferrand was the home of mathematician and philosopherBlaise Pascal, who testedEvangelista Torricelli's hypothesis concerning the influence ofgas pressure on liquid equilibrium. This is the experiment in which avacuum is created in a mercury tube; Pascal's experiment had his brother-in-law carry abarometer to the top of thePuy-de-Dôme. TheUniversité Blaise-Pascal (or Clermont-Ferrand II) was located primarily in the city and is named after him.
Clermont-Ferrand also hosts theClermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, the world's first international short film festival, which originated in 1979. This festival, which brings thousands of people every year (137,000 in 2008) to the city, is the secondFrench film Festival after Cannes in terms of visitors, but ranks first for spectators (in Cannes, visitors are not allowed in theatres, only professionals). This festival has revealed many young talented directors who are now well known in France and internationally, such asMathieu Kassovitz,Cédric Klapisch and Éric Zonka.
Beside the short film festival, Clermont-Ferrand hosts more than twenty music, film, dance, theatre and video and digital art festivals every year. With more than 800 artistic groups from dance to music, Clermont-Ferrand and the Auvergne region's cultural life is significant in France. One of the city's nicknames is "The Liverpool of France". Groups such as The Elderberries andCocoon were formed there.
Additionally, the city was the subject of the acclaimed documentaryThe Sorrow and the Pity, which used Clermont-Ferrand as the basis of the film, telling the story of France underNazi occupation and theVichy regime of MarshalPétain.Pierre Laval, Pétain's "handman", was anAuvergnat.
Clermont-Ferrand has some experience in hosting major international sports tournaments, including the FIBAEuroBasket 1999. The city was the finish ofTour de France stages in 1951 and 1959, and will host the start of the2023 Tour de France Femmes.[19]
André Michelin (1853–1931) andÉdouard Michelin (1859–1940), creators of theMichelin tyre group, whose global headquarters are still located in Clermont-Ferrand
Ivor Bueb (1923–1959), British professional sports car racing andFormula One driver
Anton Docher (1852–1928), "The Padre of Isleta", Roman Catholic priest, missionary and defender of the Indians. He lived in the pueblo of Isleta, in the state ofNew Mexico, for 34 years.
With around 2,700 students,Clermont Auvergne INP is the biggest engineering graduate school in the city.
A division ofPolytech (an engineering school of Clermont Auvergne INP) located in Clermont-Ferrand made the news when two of its students,Laurent Bonomo andGabriel Ferez, were murdered in June 2008 while enrolled in a program at Imperial College in London in what was to be known as theNew Cross double murder.[32]
^Dartevelle, Hélène (2023)."La fondation".augustonemetum.fr (in French). Archived fromthe original on 4 June 2023. Retrieved12 July 2023.Traditionnellement, la ville aurait été créée lors de la fondation de la voie d'Agrippa Lyon/Saintes reliant la capitale des Gaules (Lyon) à Saintes, capitale de l'Aquitaine.
^"Atlas Régional"(PDF) (in French). le ministère de l’Éducation nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche. April 2014. p. 51. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 27 April 2014. Retrieved19 June 2015.
^"Jumelages".international.clermont-ferrand.fr (in French). Clermont-Ferrand. Archived fromthe original on 12 November 2019. Retrieved12 November 2019.
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