Toulouse. This weekend, a visit to rediscover a historic district of the Pink City
By Toulouse editorial staff
Published on
“Sometimes deep inside me comes alive / The green water of the Canal du Midi / And the red brick of Les Minimes”… Les Minimes, the district so dear to the heart of Claude Nougaro has kept its old suburban spirit. “Even today, some residents of Les Minimes say ‘I’m going to town’ when they know the Canal du Midi, as if they lived outside of Toulouse,” laughs Eléna Bourdariès, the guide-lecturer in charge of the visit, which will take place on Sunday, October 30, 2022.
Les Minimes, a unique island
For a long time, Les Minimes formed a singular island in the Toulouse landscape, far from the protective ramparts of the medieval city center. This territory which will develop along the current avenue des Minimes, between the Canal du Midi (southern limit) and the Barrière de Paris (northern limit) is long inhospitable. The toponymy of certain arteries such as rue Négreneys, which in the Middle Ages designated a black and muddy pond, makes direct reference to it.
Subsequently, it is home to agricultural areas and farms. In the 19the century appeared market gardening farms with their “Toulousaines”, these low houses built of bricks and pebbles.
“There are still a few testimonies of this activity such as this noria, a water mill which was operated by horses or donkeys to water the surrounding vegetable gardens, preserved on the edge of the Nougaro garden”.
From the Order of Minims to the arrival of Spanish refugees
Between the paths of Fenouillet and Launaguet (near the current Minimes church), a chapel dedicated to Saint-Roch, property of the canons of Saint-Sernin, was reinforced in 1392 as an avant-garde in order to protect the city. A century later, the religious order of Minimes, which will give its name to the district, takes possession of the place in 1503.
A new church in the Toulouse Gothic style, supported by the chapel, was reinforced. During the Revolution, the complex was sold and transformed into a mill and then into barracks, before the church (of which only the nave, the choir and the square base of the original bell tower and works of art illustrating the golden century of Toulouse Renaissance painting) was returned to worship in 1852.
During the 19e and XXe centuries, the appearance of the suburb changed. Chief engineer Urban Vitry adds to the bridge, integrated in the early 1760s by Joseph Saget, two 18-meter columns which house the granting office in their base.
Iberian memory and culture
Cafes, shops and even some businesses are settling. This is the case of the Berdoues perfumery, whose Art Deco building from the 1930s can still be admired on rue du Docteur-Jammes. At the same time, the district welcomed many Spanish refugees. The memory and the Iberian culture are obviously very present there today with the cultural association Casa de España and the monument of the painter, sculptor and engraver Joan Jordà who staged a group of bronze figures recalling the destitution of these fugitives during the Retirada.
Matthew Arnal
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