Figeac (; ) is a commune in the southwestern French department of Lot. Figeac is a

sub-prefecture A subprefecture is an administrative division of a country that is below prefecture or province. Albania There are twelve Albanian counties or prefectures, each of which is divided into several districts, sometimes translated as subprefectures. ...

of the department.

Geography

Figeac is on the

via Podiensis The Via Podiensis or the Le Puy Route is one of the four routes through France on the pilgrimage to the tomb of James, son of Zebedee, St. James the Great in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia (Spain), Galicia in northwest Spain. It leaves from Le-P ...

, a major medieval pilgrimage trail that is part of the

Camino de Santiago The Camino de Santiago (, ; ), or the Way of St. James in English, is a network of pilgrims' ways or pilgrimages leading to the shrine of the apostle James in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tra ...

network. Today, as a part of France's system of long-distance footpaths, it is known as the GR 65.

Figeac station Figeac is a railway station in Figeac, Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie, France. The station is a ''keilbahnhof'', situated at the junction of the Brive-la-Gaillarde - Toulouse (via Capdenac) railway, Brive–Toulouse (via Capdenac) ...

is a railway junction with connections to Brive-la-Gaillarde, Toulouse, Aurillac and Rodez.

Population

Local culture and heritage

Places and monuments

Figeac is classified as a city of art and history and has been recognized by the Midi-Pyrénées Regional Council as one of the eighteen Great Sites of Occitania. The old town has kept its layout and winding streets of the Middle Ages with many old sandstone houses.

Religious heritage

* Chapel Notre-Dame-de-Pitié de Figeac - a 13th-century building, integrated into the Église Saint-Sauveur, was classified as a historical monument in 1840. * Chapelle de l'hôpital de Figeac. * Église Saint-Dau de Ceint-d'Eau.

=L’église Saint-Sauveur

The building was classified as a historical monument in 1840. Several religious objects are referenced in the Base Palissy database. This church, the only remains of a

Cluny Cluny () is a commune in the eastern French department of Saône-et-Loire, in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It is northwest of Mâcon. The town grew up around the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in ...

abbey, was consecrated in 1092. Saint Hugh was its abbot. Although modified over the centuries, either because of embellishments or because of the damage caused by the

Hundred Years' War The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a conflict between the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of France, France and a civil war in France during the Late Middle Ages. It emerged from feudal disputes over the Duchy ...

or the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...

, it nevertheless has survived. It was a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...

church, similar in size to Saint-Sernin de Toulouse or

Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy The Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy in Conques, France, was a popular stop for pilgrims traveling the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela, in what is now Spain. The main draw for medieval pilgrims at Conques were the remains of Saint Faith, Sa ...

, with a triple nave, a vast transept, an ambulatory and an apse with radiating chapels. The old chapter house is decorated with polychrome wood of the 17th century. A

capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

from this church, the top part of a column, was re-cut into a font and is exhibited in New York at

The Cloisters The Cloisters, also known as the Met Cloisters, is a museum in the Washington Heights, Manhattan, Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City. The museum, situated in Fort Tryon Park, specializes in European medieval art ...

(

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

)).

=L'église des Carmes

= The building was listed as a historical monument in 1993. Twelve paintings of the apostles are referenced in the Base Palissy database. Formerly Church of Saint-Thomas-Becket, it is the most modest church in size in the city. Located near the hospital, at the entrance of Figeac, it is the last witness of the former

Carmelites The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (; abbreviated OCarm), known as the Carmelites or sometimes by synecdoche known simply as Carmel, is a mendicant order in the Catholic Church for both men and women. Histo ...

convent that was once established there.

=L’église Notre-Dame-du-Puy

The building was classified as a historical monument in 1916. Several religious objects are referenced in the Base Palissy database. The aptly named, since it dominates all Figeac, on the Place du Foirail. This church of Romanesque origin was remodelled several times, especially in the 14th and 17th centuries, when the three central bays were united into one; The choir contains beautiful carved Romanesque capitals and a large carved walnut altarpiece, dated 1696. Yet it is the oldest parish of Figeac, born, according to tradition, from a miracle: The Virgin would have made a hawthorn bloom there in winter. It was the seat of a brotherhood of St. James.

=Museums

=Musée Champollion

= The city is home to the

Champollion Museum The Champollion Museum () is located in Figeac, Lot, France. It houses a collection devoted to Figeac's most famous son, Jean-François Champollion. It was inaugurated 19 December 1986 in the presence of President François Mitterrand and Jea ...

''les écritures du monde'' (the writings of the world). There are more than 40,000 visitors a year. Visitors can discover through the collections how writing has appeared in the world for 5,000 years. The Champollion Museum is a major museum of the city, but there are other museums in Figeac: the Musée Paulin-Ratier, the musée de la Résistance and finally the Musée d'histoire de Figeac. The latter was redesigned in 2012 in the spirit of cabinets of curiosities, in rooms belonging to the former seminary, behind the Notre-Dame-du-Puy church.

=La place des Écritures

= Embedded in a medieval architectural ensemble, its floor is covered with a monumental reproduction of the

Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone is a stele of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a Rosetta Stone decree, decree issued in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty of ancient Egypt, Egypt, on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts ...

(14 × 7 m), carved in black granite from

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

by the American conceptual artist

Joseph Kosuth Joseph Kosuth (; born January 31, 1945) is a Hungarian-American conceptual artist, who lives in New York and Venice,

. Inaugurated in April 1991, this important contemporary work can also be contemplated from the museum's hanging garden overlooking the square. In an adjoining courtyard, the French translation of the inscriptions is engraved on a glass plate.

=L'obélisque de Champollion

= On 11 March 1832, the municipal council decided to erect an obelisk in memory of Champollion. A subscription raised 4,000 francs and two years later a granite needle 7.8 meters high was extracted from the rock of Golinhac. It includes inscriptions in hieroglyphics meaning ''A Toujours!'' and two bronze plaques on the pedestal hosting Egyptian bas-reliefs.

=Place Carnot

= Formerly the Place de la Halle, it is surrounded by imposing houses, some made of cob, with wrought iron balconies, and under the roofs, open covered galleries, the ''soleilhos'', which were once used to dry clothes or skins, or as a refuge to get some fresh air during a hot summer evening.

=Les Aiguilles

= The two "needles" around Figeac are large octagonal stone obelisks each resting on a pedestal of four steps. They are made of cemented

dimension stone Dimension stone is natural stone or Rock (geology), rock that has been selected and finished (e.g., trimmed, cut, drilled or ground) to specific sizes or shapes. Color, Texture (geology), texture and pattern, and surface finish of the stone are ...

. The Aiguille du Cingle, standing south of the city, measures 14.50 meters. The L'aiguille de Lissac or Nayrac, standing to the west, measures 10.50 meters. File:Museum Champollion in Figeac 01.jpg, Champollion Museum File:Place des ecritures Figeac.jpg, Place des ecritures File:Obelisque figeac.jpg, Obelisque Figeac File:Aiguille Lissac Figeac.jpg, L'aiguille de Lissac File:Aiguille cingle Figeac.jpg, L'aiguille du Cingle

Notable people

Jean-François Champollion Jean-François Champollion (), also known as Champollion ''le jeune'' ('the Younger'; 23 December 1790 – 4 March 1832), was a French philologist and orientalist, known primarily as the decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs and a founding figure ...

, the first translator of

Egyptian hieroglyphics Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters.I ...

, was born in Figeac, where there is a Champollion Museum. His father had married a woman from Figeac and opened a bookshop in the village. On the ''Place des écritures'' (writings square) is a giant copy of the

, by

Joseph Kosuth Joseph Kosuth (; born January 31, 1945) is a Hungarian-American conceptual artist, who lives in New York and Venice,

. French explorer and archeologist

Théodore Ber Théodore Ber (7 March 1820 – 21 November 1900), was a French archaeologist and anthropologist who spent most of his adult life in Peru. Although an amateur, his work was appreciated by some scholars and officially recognized by the French gover ...

was born in Figeac, although he spent most of his adult life in

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. German film historian Lotte H. Eisner hid from the Nazis in Figeac during World War II. The actor

Charles Boyer Charles Boyer (; 28 August 1899 – 26 August 1978) was a French-American actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in American fi ...

and the football player Vincent Beduer were born in Figeac.

Economy

This city hosts the headquarters of Figeac Aero.

Media

Louis Malle Louis Marie Malle (; 30 October 1932 – 23 November 1995) was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. Described as "eclectic" and "a filmmaker difficult to pin down", Malle made document ...

's 1974 film, '' Lacombe Lucien'', was filmed in Figeac.

References

External links

Figeac websiteTourist officePicture of the ''Place des Ecritures''
{{Authority control Communes of Lot (department) Subprefectures in France World Heritage Sites in France Quercy