Capitole, Matabiau, Saint-Pierre: what did the key places in Toulouse look like a century ago?
By Quentin Marais
Published on
Do you know what the most emblematic places of the Pink City looked like a century ago? Rewind!
Capitol Square
A place symbolizes the city of Toulouse more than any other building: this is the capitol, built on the eponymous square. Today, it houses, in particular, the town hall of the fourth largest city in France.
But the buildings surrounding one of Toulouse’s most iconic squares have long been coated in white paint. It was from 1949 that the white gradually faded from the facades.
The municipal archives published a photo of the square on August 9, 1919, just a few months after the end of the First World War. The voice :
The Saint-Pierre bridge
A few hectometres from the Capitol and to reach the west of the city, st peter’s bridge is one of the obligatory passages, with the no less famous Pont Neuf. It also allows you to go to the Dome of the Grave.
But this building has lived several lives : a first bridge is delivered in 1852, damaged by the flood 1855. The second suffers the same fate following the floods of 1875. The third, completed in 1877, long live a much longer reign. He was photographed in 1924.
It will give way to a fourth bridge, in 1931, to ensure the development of automobile traffic. Finally, the fifth and last bridge dates from 1988: it made it possible to widely penultimate building.
Matabiau station
Gateway to the Pink City, the Matabiau station has been the subject of major works these last years. Creation of a forecourt, renovated tunnel, demolition of the bottom of Avenue de Lyon: the works are continuing and a new Transport Hall should also see the light of dayby 2028.
But just over a century ago, the Great War was in full swing in Europe. As the Municipal Archives explain, “Toulouse stations were strategic circulation spaces“. City of the rear, Toulouse “to support the war effort thanks to its stations”.
This is what the Matabiau station and its surroundings looked like on September 12, 1914, when the First World War was only just beginning…
The Arnaud-Bernard district
Right in the heart of Toulouse, the Arnaud-Bernard district is also full of history. At the end of December 2021, the town hall of the Pink City entrusted Toulouse News that it was about “from a Toulouse lung”.
Also undergoing great change, it gave way, at the beginning of the 20and century, to a totally different architecture. Indeed, a hundred years ago, a hall was located in the middle of the square. Built in 1881, it was finally destroyed in 1964.
A hospital in the middle of Boulevard de Strasbourg
Among the essential arteries of the Pink City, the Boulevard de Strasbourg is a flagship product. Since Joan of Arc, it leads to the center of Toulouse since it ends in the Jean-Jaurès sector, where the two metro lines intersect.
And if many addresses, especially restaurants, have taken up residence on the outskirts of the boulevard, this one couldn’t live to the rhythm of the plates, one century ago. At number 72 it was a hospital who served there during the First World War.
More than 100 years later, the address is now occupied, among others, by a firm accountants.
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