Castres
Encyclopedia
Castres is a commune
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

, and arrondissement
Arrondissements of France
The 101 French departments are divided into 342 arrondissements, which may be translated into English as districts.The capital of an arrondissement/district is called a subprefecture...

 capital in the Tarn department and Midi-Pyrénées
Midi-Pyrénées
Midi-Pyrénées is the largest region of metropolitan France by area, larger than the Netherlands or Denmark.Midi-Pyrénées has no historical or geographical unity...

 region
Régions of France
France is divided into 27 administrative regions , 22 of which are in Metropolitan France, and five of which are overseas. Corsica is a territorial collectivity , but is considered a region in mainstream usage, and is even shown as such on the INSEE website...

 in southern France. It lies in the former French province
Provinces of France
The Kingdom of France was organised into provinces until March 4, 1790, when the establishment of the département system superseded provinces. The provinces of France were roughly equivalent to the historic counties of England...

 of Languedoc
Languedoc
Languedoc is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day régions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France, and whose capital city was Toulouse, now in Midi-Pyrénées. It had an area of approximately 42,700 km² .-Geographical Extent:The traditional...

.

Castres is (after Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

, Tarbes
Tarbes
Tarbes is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in south-western France.It is part of the historical region of Gascony. It is the second largest metropolitan area of Midi-Pyrénées, with 110,000 inhabitants....

 and Albi) the fourth largest industrial centre of the predominantly rural Midi-Pyrénées région and the largest in that part of Languedoc lying between Toulouse and Montpellier
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....

.

Castres is noted for being the birthplace of the famous socialist leader Jean Jaurès
Jean Jaurès
Jean Léon Jaurès was a French Socialist leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. Both parties merged in 1905 in...

 and home to the important Goya Museum
Goya Museum
The Goya Museum is an art museum located in the Castres, France. It is named after the Spanish painter Francisco Goya and has the largest collection of Spanish paintings in France...

 of Spanish painting
Spanish art
Spanish art is the visual art of Spain, and that of Spanish artists worldwide. Whilst an important contributor to Western art and producing many famous and influential artists Spanish art has often had distinctive characteristics and been assessed...

.

Demography

In 1831, the population of Castres was 12,032, making it the largest town of the department of Tarn. One of the few industrial towns in the region of Albigeois, the population of the commune proper grew to 19,483 in 1901, and 34,126 by 1954 (44,161 inhabitants in the metropolitan area
Aire urbaine
The aire urbaine is a statistical region created by the INSEE that comprises a commuter belt surrounding a contiguous urban core...

). However, with the decline of its industries, population growth diminished. Albi surpassed Castres as the most populous metropolitan area of Tarn. The population of Castres is now stagnating: after small growth in the 1970s and 1980s, it registered zero growth in the 1990s.

Geography

Castres is located at an altitude of 172 meters (564 ft) above sea level
Above mean sea level
The term above mean sea level refers to the elevation or altitude of any object, relative to the average sea level datum. AMSL is used extensively in radio by engineers to determine the coverage area a station will be able to reach...

. It is located 45 km (28 mi) south-southeast of Albi, the préfecture
Préfecture
A prefecture in France can refer to :*the Chef-lieu de département, the town in which the administration of a department is located;*the Chef-lieu de région, the town in which the administration of a region is located;...

(capital) of Tarn, and 79 km (49.1 mi) east of Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

, the capital of Midi-Pyrénées
Midi-Pyrénées
Midi-Pyrénées is the largest region of metropolitan France by area, larger than the Netherlands or Denmark.Midi-Pyrénées has no historical or geographical unity...

. Castres is intersected from north to south by the Agout and Durenque rivers.

The Thoré
Thoré
The Thoré is a long river in the Hérault and Tarn départements, southwestern France. Its source is in the northern part of Rieussec. It flows generally northwest...

 forms most of the commune's south-eastern border, then flows into the Agout, which forms part of its western border.

Administration

Between 1790 and 1797 Castres was the prefecture of Tarn.

Since 2001, the mayor of Castres has been Pascal Bugis (right, member of UMP
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...

), who defeated the then socialist mayor in the 2001 election after a campaign focused on the bad records of the socialist mayor on fighting crime, and the high level of insecurity in the town.

Castres has teamed up with the nearby town of Mazamet
Mazamet
Mazamet is a commune in the Tarn department in southern France.It is the second-largest component of the Castres-Mazamet metropolitan area.-Geography:...

 (22 km/13 miles southeast of Castres) and the independent suburbs and villages in between to create the Greater Castres-Mazamet Council (Communauté d'agglomération de Castres-Mazamet), which was established in January 2000 (succeeding a previous district which had been created in 1993 with fewer powers than the current council). The Greater Castres-Mazamet Council groups 16 independent communes (including Castres and Mazamet), with a total population of 79,988 inhabitants (as of 1999 census), 54% of these living in the commune of Castres proper, 13% in the commune of Mazamet, and the rest in the communes in between.

The Greater Castres-Mazamet Council was created in order to better coordinate transport, infrastructure, housing, and economic policies between the communes of the area. The current president of the Greater Castres-Mazamet Council is Jacques Limouzy (Gaullist
Gaullism
Gaullism is a French political ideology based on the thought and action of Resistance leader then president Charles de Gaulle.-Foreign policy:...

, member of UMP), former mayor of Castres before 1995, who became president in 2001.

History

The name of the town comes from Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 castrum, and means "fortified place". Castres grew up round the Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

 abbey
Abbey
An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...

 of Saint Benoît, which is believed to have been founded in AD 647, possibly on the site of an old Roman fort (castrum). Castres became an important stop on the international pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela in Spain because its abbey-church, built in the 9th century, was keeping the relic
Relic
In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...

s of Saint Vincent
Vincent of Saragossa
Saint Vincent of Saragossa, also known as Vincent Martyr, Vincent of Huesca or Vincent the Deacon, is the patron saint of Lisbon. His feast day is 22 January in the Roman Catholic Church and Anglican Communion and 11 November in the Eastern Orthodox Churches...

, the renowned martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...

 of Spain. It was a place of some importance as early as the 12th century, and ranked as the second town of the Albigeois behind Albi. Despite the decline of its abbey, which in 1074 came under the authority of Saint Victor abbey in Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

, Castres was granted a liberal charter in the 12th century by the famous Trencavel
Trencavel
The Trencavel were an important noble family in Languedoc during the 10th through 13th centuries. The name "Trencavel," originally a nickname and later a family name, may derive from the Occitan words for "nutcracker"...

 family, viscounts of Albi. Resulting from the charter, Castres was ruled by a college of consuls.

During the Albigensian Crusade
Albigensian Crusade
The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Catholic Church to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc...

 it surrendered of its own accord to Simon de Montfort
Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester
Simon IV de Montfort, Seigneur de Montfort-l'Amaury, 5th Earl of Leicester , also known as Simon de Montfort the elder, was a French nobleman who took part in the Fourth Crusade and was a prominent leader of the Albigensian Crusade...

, and thus entered into the kingdom of France in 1229. In 1317, Pope John XXII
Pope John XXII
Pope John XXII , born Jacques Duèze , was pope from 1316 to 1334. He was the second Pope of the Avignon Papacy , elected by a conclave in Lyon assembled by Philip V of France...

 established the bishopric of Castres. In 1356, the town of Castres was raised to a countship by King John II of France
John II of France
John II , called John the Good , was the King of France from 1350 until his death. He was the second sovereign of the House of Valois and is perhaps best remembered as the king who was vanquished at the Battle of Poitiers and taken as a captive to England.The son of Philip VI and Joan the Lame,...

. However, the town greatly suffered from the Black Plague in 1347-1348, then from the Black Prince of England and the Free Companies (bands of lawless mercenaries) who laid waste the country during the Hundred Years' War
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...

. Consequently, by the late 14th century Castres entered a period of sharp decline. In 1375, there were only 4,000 inhabitants left in town, only half the figure from a century before. Following the confiscation of the possessions of Jacques d'Armagnac, duke of Nemours, to which the countship of Castres had passed, it was bestowed in 1476 by King Louis XI
Louis XI of France
Louis XI , called the Prudent , was the King of France from 1461 to 1483. He was the son of Charles VII of France and Mary of Anjou, a member of the House of Valois....

 on Boffille de Juge
Boffille de Juge
Boffille de Juge , French-Italian adventurer and statesman, belonged to the family of del Giudice, which came from Amalfi, and followed the fortunes of the Angevin dynasty. When John of Anjou, duke of Calabria, was conquered in Italy and fled to Provence, Boffille followed him...

 (Boffillo del Giudice), an Italian nobleman and adventurer serving as a diplomat for Louis XI, but the appointment led to so much disagreement (family feud between Boffille de Juge, his only daughter, and his brother-in-law) that the countship was united to the crown by King Francis I
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...

 in 1519.

Around 1560, the majority of the population of Castres converted to Protestantism. In the wars of the latter part of the 16th century the inhabitants sided with the Protestant party, fortified the town, and established an independent republic. Castres was one of the largest Protestant strongholds in southern France, along with Montauban
Montauban
Montauban is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in southern France. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse....

 and La Rochelle
La Rochelle
La Rochelle is a city in western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department.The city is connected to the Île de Ré by a bridge completed on 19 May 1988...

. Henry of Navarre, leader of the Protestant party, who later became King Henry IV of France
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....

, stayed in Castres in 1585. The Protestants of Castres were brought to terms, however, by King Louis XIII
Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...

 in 1629, and Richelieu came himself to Castres to have its fortifications dismantled. Nonetheless, after these religious wars, the town, now in peace, enjoyed a period of rapid expansion. Business and traditional commercial activities revived, in particular fur and leather-dressing, tanning, and above all wool trade. Culture flourished anew, with the founding of the Academy of Castres in 1648. Castres was turned by the Catholic Church into an active center of Counter-Reformation
Counter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation was the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648 as a response to the Protestant Reformation.The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort, composed of four major elements:#Ecclesiastical or...

, with the establishments of several convents in town, and the building of a renowned bishop's palace by Mgr. Tubœuf, still the most famous monument in town today. A new cathedral was also built, after the destructions of the religious wars. Perhaps even more important, Castres was made the seat of the Chambre de l'Édit of the Parliament of Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

, a court of justice detached from the Parliament of Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

 and in charge of dealing with the cases involving the Protestants of Languedoc
Languedoc
Languedoc is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day régions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France, and whose capital city was Toulouse, now in Midi-Pyrénées. It had an area of approximately 42,700 km² .-Geographical Extent:The traditional...

, a measure of protection granted to them by the Edict of Nantes
Edict of Nantes
The Edict of Nantes, issued on 13 April 1598, by Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. In the Edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity...

. This court attracted lots of business to Castres. In 1665, there were 7,000 inhabitants in Castres, 4,000 of whom Catholic, and 3,000 Protestant.

In 1670 however, the Chambre de l'Édit was transferred to Castelnaudary
Castelnaudary
Castelnaudary is a commune in the Aude department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in south France. It is in the former province of the Lauragais and famous for cassoulet of which it claims to be the world capital, and of which it is a major producer....

, much to the discontent of even the catholic citizens of Castres, who lost a major source of business and revenue with the departure of the lawyers and the plaintiffs. The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes soon followed, and Castres suffered a lot when a great number of Protestants chose to go into exile. Then came the plague of 1720-1721 and the fire of 1724. Last but not least, Castres lost its liberal charter in 1758. In the 1760s, a few years after the famous Calas Affair
Jean Calas
Jean Calas was a merchant living in Toulouse, France, famous for having been the victim of a biased trial due to his being a Protestant. In France, he is a symbol of Christian religious intolerance, along with Jean-François de la Barre and Pierre-Paul Sirven.Calas, along with his wife, was a...

 in Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

, Castres made the headlines nationwide: Pierre-Paul Sirven
Pierre-Paul Sirven
Pierre-Paul Sirven is one of Voltaire's causes célèbres in his campaign to écraser l'infame .- Background :Sirven became an archivist and notary in Castres, southern France, in 1736...

 and his wife, both Protestants, were wrongly accused of having murdered their daughter in order to prevent her from converting to Catholicism. Tried and sentenced to death in absentia on March 29, 1764, they were defended by Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...

, and eventually exonerated in 1771.

The outbreak of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

 was generally welcomed in Castres, particularly among the local Protestant merchants and entrepreneurs, but the majority of the population remained moderate during the whole period. In 1793 for instance, Protestant pastor Alba La Source, Castres' representative at the Convention
National Convention
During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 . It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic...

 in Paris, opposed the deportation of "non-juror" Catholic priests to French Guiana
French Guiana
French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...

, where death in the horrid jungle was certain (see Civil Constitution of the Clergy
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was a law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution, that subordinated the Roman Catholic Church in France to the French government....

). "Non-juror" priests were by far the majority in the region of Castres. Accused of being a moderate, Alba La Source was guillotine
Guillotine
The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...

d in October 1793. Suspected of being lukewarm toward the revolution, Castres was duly chastised. The bishopric which had been established by Pope John XXII
Pope John XXII
Pope John XXII , born Jacques Duèze , was pope from 1316 to 1334. He was the second Pope of the Avignon Papacy , elected by a conclave in Lyon assembled by Philip V of France...

 in 1317 was abolished, Castres later becoming part of the bishopric of Albi. Capital of the of Tarn in 1790, the town was downgraded to capital of an arrondissement in 1797, Albi being made the capital of the .

Despite these setbacks, in the 19th century the economy of Castres developed greatly, and the town grew outside of its old medieval center. As early as 1815, the first mechanized wool mill was set up in town. Originally specialized in luxury cloth, the Castres textile industry then turned toward more ordinary types of cloth, whose markets were considerably larger. Around 1860, there were 50 wool mills in town, employing 3,000 people. In the end of the 19th century, mechanical engineering industries appeared beside the textile industry, which led to Castres becoming a major arsenal for the French army during the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. Castres was linked to the French railway network in 1865. At the end of the 19th century, Castres was the largest town in the of Tarn, with 5,000 more inhabitants than Albi.

However, in the 20th century the town entered a new period of decline. Although Castres emerged from the two world wars unscathed, no military operations or combats taking place in southwest France, the local economy has been hard hit by change. Like so many towns and cities of Europe which had benefited most from the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

, Castres is experiencing a difficult restructuring of its industrial base. Textile has particularly suffered. Castres is also crippled by its geographical location, isolated in a dead end at the foot of the Massif Central
Massif Central
The Massif Central is an elevated region in south-central France, consisting of mountains and plateaux....

 mountains, away from the main exchange and transport routes. Castres is still not connected to the motorway (freeway) network of France, the only town of that size in France not yet connected. The creation of the Greater Castres-Mazamet Council in 2000 was expected to deal with the transport problem, and to work on attracting new industries. The good fortune of Castres is to be located only 79 kilometres (49.1 mi) away from the very dynamic Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

. The long promised motorway link with Toulouse is due to be completed soon, and Castres is hoping to benefit from its proximity with the big Occitan city.

Economy

The principal industries are mechanical and electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...

, machine tool
Machine tool
A machine tool is a machine, typically powered other than by human muscle , used to make manufactured parts in various ways that include cutting or certain other kinds of deformation...

s, wooden furniture, granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

, textile
Textile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...

, fur
Fur
Fur is a synonym for hair, used more in reference to non-human animals, usually mammals; particularly those with extensives body hair coverage. The term is sometimes used to refer to the body hair of an animal as a complete coat, also known as the "pelage". Fur is also used to refer to animal...

 and leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

-dressing, tanning
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...

, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and selective breeding
Selective breeding
Selective breeding is the process of breeding plants and animals for particular genetic traits. Typically, strains that are selectively bred are domesticated, and the breeding is sometimes done by a professional breeder. Bred animals are known as breeds, while bred plants are known as varieties,...

 of cows.

Traditional and polluting industries such as textile, tanning, fur and leather-dressing, or chemicals, are in sharp decline. Fortunately for Castres, a multinational pharmaceutical group (Pierre Fabre Group) emerged in the town in the 1960s, and it has kept its headquarters and R&D division in the metropolitan area, helping to counter-balance the general decline in industry. Some now accuse its founder and president, Pierre Fabre, of being the real "master" of Castres, making and designating Castres' mayors at will.

Despite this isolated success, local industry is still undergoing painful restructuring at the moment.

Transport

The Gare de Castres
Gare de Castres
Castres is a railway station in Castres, Midi-Pyrénées, France. It is situated on the Toulouse - Mazamet railway line. The station is served by TER services operated by the SNCF...

 railway station is served by regional trains to Mazamet and Toulouse.

People

Castres is the hometown of socialist politician and newspaper publisher Jean Jaurès
Jean Jaurès
Jean Léon Jaurès was a French Socialist leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. Both parties merged in 1905 in...

 (1859–1914), who was murdered in Paris the day before the start of the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

Mathematician Pierre de Fermat
Pierre de Fermat
Pierre de Fermat was a French lawyer at the Parlement of Toulouse, France, and an amateur mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his adequality...

 died in Castres in 1665, while attending a session of the Chambre de l'Édit there.

French writer Roger Peyrefitte
Roger Peyrefitte
Roger Peyrefitte was a French diplomat, writer of bestseller novels and gossipy non-fiction, and a defender of gay rights.-Life and work:...

 was born into a wealthy family of Castres in 1907.

Former French football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

er and current Lyon
Olympique Lyonnais
Olympique Lyonnais is a French association football club based in Lyon. They play in France's highest football division, Ligue 1. The club was formed as Lyon Olympique Universitaire in 1899, according to many supporters and sport historians, but was nationally established as a club in 1950. The...

 coach Claude Puel
Claude Puel
Claude Puel is a French football manager and former player. He spent 17 years playing for AS Monaco.-Managerial career:...

 was also born in Castres.

Other people born in the city include:
  • Guilhabert de Castres
    Guilhabert de Castres
    Guilhabert de Castres was a prominent Cathar theologian. Born in Castres, he became a Perfect and, between 1223 and 1226, Bishop of Toulouse in the Cathar Church...

     - Cathar bishop
  • Jean Jaurès
    Jean Jaurès
    Jean Léon Jaurès was a French Socialist leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. Both parties merged in 1905 in...

     - Politician and founder of the French socialist mouvement.
  • Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult
    Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult
    Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult, 1st Duke of Dalmatia , the Hand of Iron, was a French general and statesman, named Marshal of the Empire in 1804. He was one of only six officers in French history to receive the distinction of Marshal General of France...

     - Politician and marshal during the Napoleonic wars.
  • André Dacier
    André Dacier
    André Dacier , Latin Andreas Dacerius, was a French classical scholar and editor of texts. He began his career with an edition and commentary of Festus' De verborum significatione, and was the first to produce a "readable" text of the 20-book work.- Biography:Dacier was born at Castres in upper...

     - Scholar.
  • John Ligonier, 1st Earl Ligonier
    John Ligonier, 1st Earl Ligonier
    Field Marshal John Ligonier, 1st Earl Ligonier, KB, PC was a French-born British soldier.He was born to a Huguenot family of Castres in the south of France, and who emigrated to England at the close of the 17th century...

     - British general.
  • Paul de Rapin
    Paul de Rapin
    Paul de Rapin , sieur of Thoyras , was a French historian writing under English patronage....

     - Historian.
  • Roger Peyrefitte
    Roger Peyrefitte
    Roger Peyrefitte was a French diplomat, writer of bestseller novels and gossipy non-fiction, and a defender of gay rights.-Life and work:...

     - Diplomat and author.
  • Claude Puel
    Claude Puel
    Claude Puel is a French football manager and former player. He spent 17 years playing for AS Monaco.-Managerial career:...

     - Football player and manager.
  • Charles Blanc
    Charles Blanc
    Charles Blanc was a French art critic, brother of Louis Blanc. After the February Revolution of 1848, he was director of the department for the visual arts at the ministry of the interior...

     - Art critic.
  • Yannick Jauzion
    Yannick Jauzion
    Yannick Jauzion is a French rugby union footballer. He plays at centre for Stade Toulousain and the French national team....

     - Rugby union player.
  • Clément Poitrenaud
    Clément Poitrenaud
    Clément Poitrenaud is a French rugby union footballer. His usual position is at fullback but he also plays at centre...

     - Rugby union player.
  • Pierre Camara
    Pierre Camara
    Pierre Camara is a retired French triple jumper, best known for his gold medal at the 1993 World Indoor Championships.-Achievements:-External links:*...

     - Athlete.
  • Pierre-Paul Sirven
    Pierre-Paul Sirven
    Pierre-Paul Sirven is one of Voltaire's causes célèbres in his campaign to écraser l'infame .- Background :Sirven became an archivist and notary in Castres, southern France, in 1736...

     - philosopher
  • Maryline Salvetat
    Maryline Salvetat
    Maryline Salvetat is a French cyclist born in Castres. She participates in road cycling as well as in cyclo-cross and mountain biking. In 2002, 2004 and 2005 she became French national champion in cyclo-cross...

     - Cyclist.
  • Guillaume Borne
    Guillaume Borne
    Guillaume Borne is a French football player who currently plays for AS Beauvais.-External links:** at L'Equipe.fr...

    ,footballer


People who livedin Castres include:
  • Paul Pellisson
    Paul Pellisson
    thumb|Paul Pellisson,Paul Pellisson was a French author.He was born in Béziers, of a distinguished Calvinist family. He studied law at Toulouse, and practised at the bar of Castres. Going to Paris with letters of introduction to Valentin Conrart, a fellow Calvinist, he was introduced to the...

     - Author.
  • Anne Lefèvre
    Anne Lefèvre
    Anne Le Fèvre Dacier , better known during her lifetime as Madame Dacier, was a French scholar and translator of the classics....

     - Scholar.
  • Jean Bon Saint-André
    Jean Bon Saint-André
    Jean Bon Saint-André was a French politician of the Revolution era.-Early career and in the Convention:...

     - Politician during the Revolution era.
  • Bernardo Gui
    Bernard Gui
    Bernard Gui , also known as Bernardo Gui or Bernardus Guidonis, was an inquisitor of the Dominican Order in the Late Middle Ages during the Medieval Inquisition, Bishop of Lodève, and one of the most prolific writers of the Middle Ages...

     - Inquisitor.
  • Philip of Montfort, Lord of Castres
    Philip of Montfort, Lord of Castres
    Philip of Montfort was a French nobleman, then Lord of Castres in 1270. He was the son of Philip of Montfort, Lord of Tyre and Eleonore of Courtenay...

     - Nobleman.
  • Boffille de Juge
    Boffille de Juge
    Boffille de Juge , French-Italian adventurer and statesman, belonged to the family of del Giudice, which came from Amalfi, and followed the fortunes of the Angevin dynasty. When John of Anjou, duke of Calabria, was conquered in Italy and fled to Provence, Boffille followed him...

     - Statesman.
  • Vincent Baron
    Vincent Baron
    -Biography:He was born at Martres, in the département of the Haute-Garonne, France, 17 May 1604; died in Paris on 21 January 1674. At the age of seventeen he passed from the college of the Jesuits in Toulouse to the Dominican convent of St. Thomas in the same city...

     - Theologian.
  • Pierre de Fermat
    Pierre de Fermat
    Pierre de Fermat was a French lawyer at the Parlement of Toulouse, France, and an amateur mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his adequality...

     - Mathematician.
  • Kees Meeuws
    Kees Meeuws
    Kees Junior Meeuws is a former New Zealand rugby union prop and current assistant coach of the Highlanders in the Super Rugby tournament. Meeuws played 42 tests for the All Blacks between 1998 and 2004, scoring 10 test tries...

     - Rugby union player
  • Christophe Farnaud - Ambassadeur de France en Grèce

Main sights

Castres is intersected from north to south by the Agout River. The river is fringed by old houses the upper stories of which project over its waters.
The church of Saint Benoît, once the cathedral of Castres, and the most important of the churches of Castres today, dates only from the 17th and 18th centuries. The city hall occupies the former bishop's palace, designed in the 17th century by Jules Hardouin-Mansart (the architect of Versailles
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....

), and with gardens designed by André Le Nôtre
André Le Nôtre
André Le Nôtre was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France...

 (the designer of the gardens in Versailles
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....

). The Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

 tower beside it (Tour Saint Benoît) is the only survival of the old Benedictine abbey. The town possesses some old mansions from the 16th and 17th century, including the Hôtel de Nayrac, of the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

.

Castres possesses the renowned Goya
Francisco Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker regarded both as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown, and through his works was both a commentator on and chronicler of his era...

 Museum, created in 1840, which contains the largest collection of Spanish paintings in France. A Jaurès Museum was also opened in 1954 in the house where Jean Jaurès
Jean Jaurès
Jean Léon Jaurès was a French Socialist leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. Both parties merged in 1905 in...

 was born in 1859.

The Jardin botanique Pierre Fabre "La Michonne"
Jardin botanique Pierre Fabre "La Michonne"
The Jardin botanique Pierre Fabre "La Michonne" , also known as the Conservatoire botanique Pierre Fabre, is a private botanical garden maintained by the nonprofit Institut Klorane...

 is a private botanical garden
Botanical garden
A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

 and conservatory that can be visited.

Sports

Quite normally, as it is a town of West Occitania
Occitania
Occitania , also sometimes lo País d'Òc, "the Oc Country"), is the region in southern Europe where Occitan was historically the main language spoken, and where it is sometimes still used, for the most part as a second language...

 nicknamed Ovalie for the religion status of this sport there, rugby (Rugby Union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

) is the main sport in Castres. The local team is Castres Olympique
Castres Olympique
Castres Olympique is a French rugby union club located in the Midi-Pyrénées city of Castres and currently competing in the top level of the French league system.Founded in 1898, the club took its current name in 1906...

, which was three times champion of France (in 1949, 1950, and 1993). Castres Olympique is the property of local tycoon Pierre Fabre, founder and president of Pierre Fabre Group.

Castres was the finish of Stage 12 in the 2007 Tour de France
2007 Tour de France
The 2007 Tour de France, the 94th running of the race, took place from 7 July to 29 July 2007. The Tour began with a prologue in London, and ended with the traditional finish in Paris. Along the way, the route also passed through Belgium and Spain...

.

Cinema

Castres is the place where a short film festival occurs each year

Twin towns

Castres is twinned
Town twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...

 with: Linares, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 Wakefield
Wakefield
Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....

, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...


See also

  • Castres-Mazamet Airport
    Castres-Mazamet Airport
    Castres – Mazamet Airport is an airport serving Castres and Mazamet and the east of Midi-Pyrénées. The airport is located southeast of Castres and northwest of Mazamet, near the commune of Labruguière, in the Tarn department.-Facilities:...

  • Communes of the Tarn department
  • Tourism in Tarn
    Tourism in Tarn
    From the Gaillac Vineyard to the Sidobre, the Montagne Noire and the stunning Gorges du Tarn, the Tarn department, in the southwest of France, offers a great range of sights and tourist attractions.-Statistics:In 2009, there were :...


External links

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