Montluçon
Montlucon is a French town in the Auvergne region. With 38 166 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2011) it is the largest city in the department of Allier. Montlucon is the seat of sub-prefecture (French Sous- préfecture ) of the arrondissements Montlucon, capital (French: chef- lieu) of the cantons Montlucon -Est - Nord-Est Montlucon, Montlucon -Ouest and Montlucon -Sud and the seat of the municipal association Agglomà montluçonnaise.
- 6.1 Sons and daughters of the town
- 6.2 people with relationship to the city
Geography
Montlucon is located in the center of France, on a bend of the upper Cher and is the terminus of the abandoned Canal de Berry ( southern section ).
To the north of Montlucon is located 106 km ² state forest Tronçais forest.
Demographics
Attractions
Montlucon has more than 20 buildings or objects that are classified as a monument historique in the base Mérimée, the database of the French Ministry of Culture or registered in their additional directory.
- Old town
- Church of St- Pierre: 12-13. Century Romanesque nave of four circular columns worn crossing tower; Baptismal font and statue of Mary Magdalene from the 15th century, the church is located in the north of Medina
- Notre-Dame Church: Romanesque- gothic
- Built on the Mont Luçon, a granite hill above the town, from the mid-13th century timber-framed: Château des Ducs de Bourbon ( Castle of the Bourbon Dukes )
- Musée des Musiques Poulaires et de la Resistance ( in the castle ) with over 700 historic and modern instruments and - one floor up - the representation of the Resistance in general and in the region.
- Museum / Château de la Louviere: built in 1926 in the style of the ancien régime, in the midst of a larger farms in Italian - English style
- Circuit des Megaliths in the north east of Montlucon
Saint- Pierre, Interior
Church of Notre -Dame
Notre -Dame, interior view
Economy and Transport
The city is the economic center of Bourbonnais with numerous industrial plants.
The rise of a medieval-themed to a city of production of industrial goods began with the completion of the Canal de / du Berry in 1841, with the iron ore deposits of the Berry were connected to the coal deposits in Commentry.
After a crisis at the beginning of the 20th century, when the exhausted resources, dominate today in the city of engineering, chemistry, electrical engineering and furniture making.
The airport Aéroport de Montlucon - Gueret is located about 30 km away.
History
In May / June 1940, the Wehrmacht won the Western campaign; on June 22, 1940 France signed the capitulation similar Armistice. There was an occupied SDeutschland northern zone and a southern zone ruled by the Vichy regime. Montlucon ( it is 75 km in a straight line north-west to the west of Vichy) belonged to the South Zone. This was on 10-11. November 1942 occupied (as an attack on Hitler's "Fortress Europe" became apparent after the Allied landings in North Africa in November 1942 ( Operation Torch, occupied German and Italians on 10 and 11 November 1942, the hitherto unoccupied southern zone of France ).
Twinning
Personalities
Sons and daughters of the town
- Roger Chaput (1910-1995), jazz musician and visual artist
- Jules Cluzel (* 1988), motorcycle racer
- Marx Dormoy (1888-1941), socialist politician and Minister of the Interior
- Ophélie Meilleroux ( born 1984 ), football player
- André Messager (1853-1929), conductor and composer
- Gabrielle Robinne (1886-1980), actress
- Roger Walkowiak (* 1927), former French cyclist
People with relationship to the city
- Edmé boursault, writer, died in Montlucon
- Audrey Tautou (born 1976 ), French actress, raised in Montlucon