The Pink City of Montauban

It is in 1144 that a « bastide » was created here overlooking the right bank of the Tarn River and immediately given a new liberal charter. The inhabitants of the neighborhood hastened to the new city that grew rapidly. The sole use of pink brick for the monuments and buildings confers a very particularly warm aspect to Montauban and most of the towns and important villages of Bas Quercy down to Toulouse.

Montauban, Place Nationale

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In 1561, Montauban was the capital-city of Protestantism, with Louis XIII the town is besieged three times in 1621. The resistance is superb and the King of France has to give up. But this success does not last, and in 1628, Montauban last fortress of this religion, opens the gates without fighting to the King and Cardinal de Richelieu. The Huguenots are then granted the King’s mercy. The fortifications are however destroyed and large boulevards opened.

The fortified Saint-Jacques Church dates from the XIIIth century and features a beautiful octagonal spire. The construction of the cathedral Notre-Dame began in 1692, in the Classic Style. Louis XIV then wished to strengthen the power of the catholic religion. The statues of the Four Evangelists dominate the peristyle consisting of four doric columns. The façade also has two square towers. Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Robert de Cotte follow after François d’Orbay (1634-1697) the first architect who was associated with Le Vau. The famous painting « Le Voeu de Louis XIII » by Ingres is kept in the cathedral.

The left bank of the town is connected by the Old Bridge, entirely built in pink bricks at the beginning of the XIVth century.

The Ingres Museum is located in the former residence of the bishops in the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries. Also built in bricks, it is a sober and imposing edifice. A valuable collection of paintings by Ingres, David, Chassériau, Géricault, Delacroix is presented here along with masterpieces of the great sculptor Bourdelle, also a native of Montauban.

The city really offers a spendid homogeneity in style. The « Place Nationale » (XVIth century) is an enchanting square with its brick houses where the markets and « terrasses de cafés » are highly praised. Under the ribbed vaults of the arcades, shops and brasseries draw tourists and visitors.

Montauban is called the « pinkiest of pink towns » due its warm and noble brick architecture.

Montauban, « Monument aux Morts de 1870 » by Bourdelle in 1902.

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Montauban, Ingres Museum

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Montauban, the « Old Bridge »

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The Great Warrior of Montauban by Bourdelle, 1898, now in the Hirshhorn’s Museum’s Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C.

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Ingres, « Etude pour le Martyre de Saint-Symphorien », 1824-34, Montauban,

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