Limousin (; ) is a former administrative region of southwest-central

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Named after the old province of Limousin, the administrative region was founded in 1960. It comprised three departments:

Corrèze Corrèze (; ) is a département in France, named after the river Corrèze which runs through it. Although its prefecture is Tulle, its most populated city is Brive-la-Gaillarde. Corrèze is located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, on the bo ...

Creuse Creuse (; or ) is a department in central France named after the river Creuse. After Lozère, it is the second least populated department in France. It is bordered by Indre and Cher to the north, Allier and Puy-de-Dôme to the east, Cor ...

, and

Haute-Vienne Haute-Vienne (; , ; Upper Vienne) is a département in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwest-central France. Named after the Vienne River, it is one of the twelve départements that together constitute Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The prefecture an ...

. On 1 January 2016, it became part of the new administrative region of

Nouvelle-Aquitaine Nouvelle-Aquitaine () is the largest Regions of France, administrative region in France by area, spanning the west and southwest of Metropolitan France. The region was created in 2014 by the merging of Aquitaine, Limousin, and Poitou-Charentes ...

. Situated mostly in the west side of south-central French Massif Central, Limousin had (in 2010) 742,770 inhabitants spread out on nearly , making it the least populated region of

metropolitan France Metropolitan France ( or ), also known as European France (), is the area of France which is geographically in Europe and chiefly comprises #Hexagon, the mainland, popularly known as "the Hexagon" ( or ), and Corsica. This collective name for the ...

. Forming part of the southwest of the country, Limousin was bordered by the regions of

Centre-Val de Loire Centre-Val de Loire (; ,In isolation, ''Centre'' is pronounced . ) or Centre Region (, ), as it was known until 2015, is one of the eighteen Regions of France, administrative regions of France. It straddles the middle Loire Valley in the interior ...

to the north, Auvergne to the east, Midi-Pyrénées to the south,

Aquitaine Aquitaine (, ; ; ; ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne (), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former Regions of France, administrative region. Since 1 January 2016 it has been part of the administ ...

to the southwest, and Poitou-Charentes to the west. Limousin was also part of the larger historical Occitania region.

Population

The population of Limousin was aging and, until 1999, was declining. The department of Creuse had the oldest population of any in France. Between 1999 and 2004 the population of Limousin increased slightly, reversing a decline for the first time in decades.

Major communities

* Brive-la-Gaillarde * Guéret *

Limoges Limoges ( , , ; , locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region. Situated o ...

* Panazol * Saint-Junien *

Tulle Tulle (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in central France. It is the third-largest town in the former region of Limousin and is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Corrèze, in the Regions of France, region of Nouvelle- ...

* Ussel

History

Limousin was one of the traditional

provinces of France Under the Ancien Régime, the Kingdom of France was subdivided in multiple different ways (judicial, military, ecclesiastical, etc.) into several administrative units, until the National Constituent Assembly adopted a more uniform division into ...

. Its name derived from that of a

Celt The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

ic tribe, the Lemovices, who had their capital at Saint-Denis-des-Murs and whose main sanctuary in 2004 was found in Tintignac, a site which became a major site for Celtic studies thanks to unique objects which were found – such as the carnyces, unique in the whole Celtic world. Viscount Aimar V of Limoges ( – ) was a notable ruler of the region.

Language

Until the 1970s, Occitan was the primary language of rural areas. There remained several different Occitan dialects in use in Limousin, although their use was rapidly declining. These were: * Limousin () dialect * Auvergnat () dialect in the East/North-East *

Languedocien Languedocien (French name, ), Languedocian, or Lengadocian () is an Occitan language, Occitan dialect spoken in rural parts of southern France such as Languedoc, Rouergue, Quercy, Agenais and southern Périgord. It is sometimes also called Lang ...

() in the Southern fringe of

* in the North, the Crescent transition area between Occitan and French is sometimes considered as a separate (basically Occitan) dialect called Marchois ().

Transport

* The word limousine is derived from the name of the region. A particular type of carriage hood or roof physically resembled the raised hood of the cloak worn by the shepherds there.

Notable residents

From Corrèze

From Creuse

From Haute-Vienne

Footnotes

External links

Limousin : the “château d'eau”
- Official French website (in English) *
Limousin regional council website
with a presentation video in English. *
Art in the Limousin region
*
History and Geography (University of Limoges)
{{Authority control Massif Central History of Nouvelle-Aquitaine History of Corrèze History of Dordogne History of Haute-Vienne Former regions of France NUTS 2 statistical regions of the European Union 1956 establishments in France States and territories established in 1956 2015 disestablishments in France States and territories disestablished in 2015 France geography articles needing translation from French Wikipedia