Travel Guide to Limoges, France

Limoges is the warmest city of France. It is famous by its porcelain and ceramic items of XIX century, by splendid local applied art, the basis of which is in the creation of coated ware combined with the saults of metals (enamel), and by oak barrels that are used to make cognac.

Initially Limoges was founded by the Romans yet in X century BC. The city’s religion was paganism, but steadily Limoges was turned into Christianity by Saint Martin. This process ended in 250 AD. In the beginning of XIII century Limoges was already a large town, the central part of which consisted of two protective facilities joined by the bridge of Saint Etienne. One part of the facility was the town itself. It was surrounded by walls and built along the River Vienna. The second part of the protective facility was the castle of the abbey founded in this place in XI century.

Nowadays only ruins remind of those facilities. They are precious to the local people as they sure have historical value. One more ancient and precious destination of the city is the library of Saint Martin. The library contains 23 thousand of books. The library works in the abbey and today this is a museum and a center of art. The main sight of this place is the tomb of the saint that has been founded recently. Besides these memorial sights Limoges surely has other places of interest. Guests are suggested to visit ecclesiastical seminary and the lyceum that works near it, a school in which are prepared doctors and pharmaceutical chemists, a picture gallery, and a granite cathedral Saint Etienne built in XII century famous by its tilted bell tower, a granite archbishop’s palace with amazing garden, the ruins of an ancient Roman amphitheater, and the house of Templar knights with a gallery of underground passages and rooms.