Top left: Toulon Opera House, top right: Mayol Stadium (Le Stade du Mayol), 2nd: panoramic view of downtown Toulon and its port, 3rd left: Place de la Liberté, 3rd right: the beaches of Mourillon, bottom left: the cable car to Mount Faron, bottom right: Fort Saint-Louis
The Commune of Toulon has a population of 176,198 people (2018), making it France's 13th-largest city. It is the centre of anurban unit with 580,281 inhabitants (2018), the ninth largest in France by population.[7] Toulon is the second-largest French city by urban area on the Mediterranean coast afterMarseille.
Toulon is an important centre for naval construction, fishing, wine making, and the manufacture of aeronautical equipment, armaments, maps, paper, tobacco, printing, shoes, and electronic equipment.
Archaeological excavations, such as those at theCosquer Cave nearMarseille, show that the coast ofProvence was inhabited since at least thePaleolithic era.Greek colonists came fromPhocaea,Asia Minor, in about the 7th century BC and established trading depots along the coast, including one, called Olbia, at Saint-Pierre de l'Almanarre south ofHyères, to the east of Toulon. TheLigurians settled in the area beginning in the 4th century BC.[8]
In the 2nd century BC, the residents of Massalia (present-day Marseille) called upon theRomans to help them pacify the region. The Romans defeated the Ligurians and began to start their own colonies along the coast.[citation needed] A Roman settlement was founded at the present location of Toulon, with the name Telo Martius – Telo, either for the local god of springsTelo or from the Latintol, the base of the hill – andMartius, for the god of war. Telo Martius became one of the two principal Romandye manufacturing centres, producing the purple colour used in imperial robes, made from the local sea snail calledmurex, and from the acorns of the oak trees. Toulon harbour became a shelter for trading ships, and the name of the town gradually changed from Telo to Tholon, Tolon, and Toulon.[citation needed]
Arrival of Christianity and the Counts of Provence
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Toulon was Christianized in the 5th century, and the first cathedral built.Honoratus and Gratianus of Toulon (Gratien), according to theGallia Christiana, were the first bishops ofToulon, butLouis Duchesne givesAugustalis as the first historical bishop. He assisted at councils in 441 and 442 and signed in 449 and 450 the letters addressed toPope Leo I from theprovince of Arles.[citation needed]
ASaint Cyprian, disciple and biographer ofSt. 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 twoVisigothic chiefs, Mandrier and Flavian, who becameanchorites and martyrs on the peninsula of Mandrier.[9] As barbarians invaded the region and Roman power crumbled, the town was frequently attacked by pirates and theSaracens.[10][citation needed]
The Tour Royale (16th century)Barbarossa'sOttoman fleet, of theRegency of Algiers, wintering in the harbour of Toulon in 1543, with theTour Royale (bottom right).The Toulon Opera House (1862)A view of the University campus
In 1486, Provence became part of France. Soon afterwards, in 1494,Charles VIII of France, with the intention of making France a sea power on the Mediterranean, and to support his military campaign in Italy, began constructing a military port at the harbor of Toulon. His Italian campaign failed, and in 1497, the rulers ofGenoa, who controlled commerce on that part of the Mediterranean, blockaded the new port.
In 1524, as part of his longtime battle against EmperorCharles V and theHoly Roman Empire, KingFrançois I ofFrance completed a powerful new fort, theTour Royale, Toulon, at the entrance of the harbour. However, a few months later the commander of the new fort sold it to the commander of an Army of the Holy Roman Empire, and Toulon surrendered.
In 1543, Francis I found a surprising new ally in his battle against the Holy Roman Empire. He invited the fleet ofOttoman AdmiralBarbarossa to Toulon as part of theFranco-Ottoman alliance. The residents were forced to leave (except for the heads of household), and the Ottoman sailors occupied the town for the winter.[11] SeeOttoman occupation of Toulon.
In 1646, a fleet was gathered in Toulon for the majorBattle of Orbetello, also known as the Battle of Isola del Giglio, commanded by France's first Grand Admiral, the young Grand Admiral Marquis of Brézé, Jean Armand de Maillé-Bréze of 36 galleons, 20 galleys, and a large complement of minor vessels. This fleet carried aboard an army of 8,000 infantry and 800 cavalry and its baggage under Thomas of Savoy, shortly before a general in Spanish service.
In 1790, following theFrench Revolution, Toulon became the administrative centre of the département of theVar. However, in 1793, theJacobin administration of the city was swept from power, allowingGirondins and royalists to take their place; the city then rose up against the central administration of the First Republic and joined theFederalist revolts. The new Federalist administration surrendered the city and its fleet to the British. French Republican forces then undertook thesiege of Toulon, forcing the British to withdraw, taking a number of ships with them and destroying the rest of them.Napoleon Bonaparte served as an artillery captain during the event. To punish Toulon for its rebellion, the town lost its status as department capital and was briefly renamedPort-la-Montagne,[12] afterThe Mountain faction.
In 1820, the statue which became known as theVenus de Milo was discovered on the Greek island of Milo and seen by a French naval officer, Emile Voutier. He persuaded the French Ambassador to Turkey to buy it, and brought it to Toulon on his ship, theEstafette. From Toulon it was taken to theLouvre.[14]
In 1849, Louis-Napoleon namedGeorges Eugène Haussmann as the new Prefect of theVar department. He served there only one year, but he laid out the current street plan for the city center, as he would later do for the city of Paris.
In August 1935, a year before the reign of thePopular Front, violent uprisings of the workers of the Toulon shipyards opposed thepolicy of austerity. This resulted in a large number of deaths and injuries; astate of emergency was imposed.[15]
During World War II, after theAllied landings in North Africa (Operation Torch) the German Army occupied southern France (Case Anton), leading French naval officers toscuttle the French Fleet based at Toulon on 27 November 1942.[16] The city was bombed by the Allies in November of the following year, with much of the port destroyed and five hundred residents killed.[citation needed]
TheHôtel de Ville, centre of the administration of the city, was completed in 1970.[17]
In 1979, theUniversity of Toulon opened. Toulon was one of four French cities where the extreme-rightFront National won the local elections in 1995. The Front National was voted out of power in 2001.
The old town of Toulon, the historic centre between the port, the Boulevard de Strasbourg and the Cours Lafayette, is a pedestrian area with narrow streets, small squares and many fountains.Toulon Cathedral is there. The area is also home of the celebratedProvençal market, which takes place every morning on the Cours Lafayette and features local products. The old town decayed in the 1980s and 1990s, but recently many of the fountains and squares have been restored and many new shops have opened.[18]
Fontaine du Dauphin, Place Paul Comte. The fountain, on the wall of the Bishop's residence, appears in the drawings of Toulon made for Louis XIV in 1668.
Fontaine des Trois Dauphins, Place Puget (1782)
Fontaine de l'Intendance, Place Amiral Sénès, (1821)
The Fontaine-Lavoir de Saint-Vincent, Place Saint-Vincent (1832), replaced the original fountain built in 1615. It had a fountain for drinking water and two basins, for washing clothes, one for washing and one for rinsing.
View of downtown Toulon and Mediterranean Sea from Mount Faron
The Old Town of Toulon is known for its fountains, found in many of the small squares, each with a different character. The original system of fountains was built in the late 17th century; most were rebuilt in the 18th or early 19th century and have recently been restored.[19]
The upper town, between the Boulevard de Strasbourg and the railway station, was built in the mid-19th century underLouis Napoleon. The project was begun byGeorges-Eugène Haussmann, who was prefect of the Var in 1849. Improvements to the neighbourhood included theToulon Opera, the Place de la Liberté, the Grand Hôtel, the Gardens of Alexander I, the Chalucet Hospital, the Palais de Justice, the train station, and the building now occupied byGaleries Lafayette, among others. Haussmann went on to use the same style on a much grander scale in the rebuilding of central Paris.[20]
Toulon harbour is one of the best natural anchorages on the Mediterranean and one of the largest harbours in Europe. A naval arsenal and shipyard was built in 1599, and a small sheltered harbour, the Veille Darse, was built in 1604–1610 to protect ships from the wind and sea. The shipyard was greatly enlarged byCardinal Richelieu, who wished to make France a Mediterranean naval power. Further additions were made byJean-Baptiste Colbert andVauban.
Le Mourillon is a small seaside neighbourhood to the east of Toulon, near the entrance of the harbour. It was once a fishing village, and then became the home of many of the officers of the French fleet. Mourillon has a small fishing port, next to a 16th-century fort, Fort Saint Louis, which was reconstructed by Vauban.[21] In the 1970s, the city of Toulon built a series of sheltered sandy beaches in Mourillon, which today are very popular with the Toulonais and naval families. The Museum of Asian Art is in a house on the waterfront near Fort St. Louis.
Mount Faron (584 metres (1,916 feet)) dominates the city of Toulon. The top can be reached by cable car from Toulon or by a narrow road that ascends from the west side and descends on the east side. The road is one of the stages of the annualParis–Nice andTour Méditerranéen bicycle races.
At the top of Mount Faron is a memorial dedicated to the 1944 Allied landings in Provence (Operation Dragoon), and to the liberation of Toulon.
The Porte d'Italie, built by Vauban. Napoleon departed from this gate in 1796 on his Italian campaign.
Beginning in 1678,Vauban constructed an elaborate system of fortifications around Toulon. Some parts, such as the section that once ran along the present-day Boulevard de Strasbourg, were removed in the mid-19th century so the city could be enlarged, but other parts remain.[22] One part that can be visited is the Porte d'Italie, one of the old city gates.Napoleon Bonaparte departed on his triumphant Italian campaign from this gate in 1796.
TheMuseum of the French Navy (Musée national de la marine) is located on Place Monsenergue, next on the west side of the old port, a short distance from the Hôtel de Ville. The museum was founded in 1814, during the reign of the Emperor Napoleon.[23] It is located today behind what was formerly the monumental gate to the Arsenal of Toulon, built in 1738. The museum building, along with the clock tower next to it, is one of the few buildings of the port and arsenal which survived Allied bombardments during World War II. It contains displays tracing the history of Toulon as a port of theFrench Navy. Highlights include large 18th-century ship models used to teach seamanship and models of the aircraft carrierCharles De Gaulle.
TheMuseum of Old Toulon and its Region (Musée du vieux Toulon et de sa région). The Museum was founded in 1912, and contains a collection of maps, paintings, drawings, models and other artifacts showing the history of the city.
TheMuseum of Asian Arts (Musée des arts asiatiques), in Mourillon. Located in a house with garden which once belonged to the son and later the grandson of authorJules Verne, the museum contains a small but interesting collection of art objects, many donated by naval officers from the time of the French colonization of Southeast Asia. It includes objects and paintings from India, China, Southeast Asia, China Tibet and Japan.
TheMemorial Museum to the Landings in Provence (Mémorial du débarquement de Provence) is located on the summit of Mount Faron, this small museum, opened in 1964 by PresidentCharles De Gaulle, commemorates the Allied landing in Provence in August 1944 with photos, weapons and models.
TheMuseum of Natural History of Toulon and the Var (Musée d'histoire naturelle de Toulon et du Var) was founded in 1888, has a large collection of displays about dinosaurs, birds, mammals, and minerals, mostly from the region.
Toulon is subtropical, featuring aMediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa), characterised by abundant and strong sunshine, dry summers, and rain which is rare but sometimes torrential; and by hot summers and mild winters. Because of its proximity to the sea, the temperature is relatively moderate.
The average temperature in January, the coldest month, is 9.9 °C (50 °F), the warmest of any city in metropolitan France.[citation needed] In January, the maximum average temperature is 13.2 °C (56 °F). and the average minimum temperature is 6.6 °C (44 °F).
The average temperature in July, the warmest month, is 24.7 °C (76 °F), with an average maximum of 29.5 °C (85 °F). and an average minimal temperature of 19.9 °C (68 °F).
According to data collected byMétéo-France, Toulon is the second city (afterMarseille) in metropolitan France with the most sunshine per year: an average of 2,854.1 hours a year from 1991 to 2020, compared with 2,695 hours a year for Nice and 2,472 hours for Perpignan.[26] This is due to the wall of mountains that largely protects Toulon from the weather coming from the north. With a yearly average temperature of 16.7 °C (62 °F), it is also one of the warmest cities in metropolitan France.
One distinctive feature of the Toulon climate is the wind, with 115 days a year of strong winds; usually either the cold and dryMistral or theTramontane from the north, the wetMarin; or theSirocco sometimes bearing reddish sand from Africa; or the wet and stormyLevant from the east.[citation needed] (SeeWinds of Provence.) The windiest month is January, with an average of 12.5 days of strong winds. The least windy month is September, with 7 days of strong winds.
Climate data for Toulon (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1936–present)
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found onPhabricator and onMediaWiki.org.
Toulon figures prominently inVictor Hugo'sLes Misérables. It is the location of the infamous prison, thebagne of Toulon, in which the protagonist Jean Valjean spends nineteen years in hard labour. Toulon is also the birthplace of the novel's antagonist,Javert. One portion of the wall of the old bagne, or prison, where Jean Valjean was supposedly held still stands to the right of the entrance of the Old Harbour.[citation needed]
InAnthony Powell's novelWhat's Become of Waring the central characters spend a long summer holiday in Toulon's old town. Powell himself stayed at the Hotel du Port et des Negociants on two occasions in the early 1930s and writes in the second volume of his memoirsThe naval port, with its small inner harbour, row of cafés along the rade, was quite separate from the business quarter of the town. A paddle steamer plied several times a day between this roadstead and the agreeably unsophisticated plage of Les Sablettes.
The last half ofDewey Lambdin's historical fiction novel,H.M.S. Cockerel, (the sixth novel in hisAlan Lewrie naval adventure series) details theSiege of Toulon from Lewrie's perspective, as he commands a commandeered French barge carrying sea mortars against Lieutenant-Colonel Bonaparte's forces.
Toulon is served by theGare de Toulon railway station, offering suburban services to Marseille (1 train every 15 minutes during peak hours), regional services to Nice, and high speed connections to Paris, Strasburg, Luxemburg and Brussels. A daily night intercity train is also connecting the city to Nice, Marseille and Paris.
The port of Toulon is the main port of departures for ferries toCorsica.
The nearest airport is the regionalToulon-Hyères Airport. The proximity ofMarseille-Provence Airport located at 80 kms of the city, serving international destinations in Europe, Africa, Middle East, North America and Asia and linked to the city-center by direct trains daily offers a good international connectivity to the city.
The local public transport service,Réseau Mistral de Toulon [fr], operates 60 bus routes and 3 sea shuttle lines and is used by 30 million passengers annually.[citation needed]
The city has been chosen byGroupamaTeam France as the venue for the fifth event in the Americas Cup World Series 2016, alongside international cities such as Portsmouth & New York.
^Aldo Bastié, Historie de la Provence, Éditions Ouest-France, 2001.
^A legend which states that a certain Cleon accompanied St. Lazarus to Gaul and was the founder of the Church of Toulon, is based on a 14th-century forgery that was ascribed to a 6th-century bishop named Didier.
^Table alphabetique et analytique des archives parlementaires, LXXXII (in French). Archives Parlementaires. p. 789. Retrieved10 November 2023.Port-la-Montagne (Commune de). La Convention décrète que la commune de Toulon portera désormais le nom de Port-la-Montagne (4 nivôse an II — 24 décembre 1793, t. LXXXII, p. 259).
^for the history of the Old Town, see Michel Vergé-Franceschi, Toulon – Port Royal (1481–1789). Tallandier: Paris, 2002.
^André-Jean Tardy, Fontaines Toulonnaises, Les Éditions de la Nerthe, Toulon, 2001.
^Haussmann was only prefect of the Var for one year, but the prototypes for boulevards, apartment buildings and parks he built in Paris were copied in many large French cities.
^Michel Vergé-Franceschi,Toulon – Port Royal (1481–1789. Tallandier: Paris, 2002.
^Michel Vergé-Franceschi,Toulon – Port Royal (1481–1789). Tallandier: Paris, 2002.
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