Tournus

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Commune of Tournus
Location
Longitude 04° 54' 33" E
Latitude 46° 33' 50" N
Administration
Country France
Région Bourgogne
Département Saône-et-Loire
Arrondissement Mâcon
Canton Tournus (chief town)
Intercommunality Communauté de
communes du Tournugeois
Mayor Paul Talmard
(2001)
Statistics
Altitude 168 m–353 m
(avg. 193 m)
Land area¹ 25 km²
Population²
(1999)
6,231
 - Density (1999) 252/km²
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code 71543/ 71700
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq. mi. or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).
France
Abbey of Tournus
Enlarge
Abbey of Tournus

Tournus is a commune of the Saône-et-Loire département, in east-central France.

Contents

[edit] Geography

Tournus is located on the right bank of the Saône, 20 m. N. by E. of Mâcon on the Paris-Lyon railway.

[edit] Sights

The church of St Philibert at Tournus (early 11th century) once belonging to the Benedictine abbey of Tournus, suppressed in 1785, is in the Burgundian Romanesque style. The façade lacks one of the two flanking towers originally designed for it. The nave is roofed with barrel vaulting, supported on tall cylindrical columns. The choir beneath which is a crypt of the 11th century has a deambulatory and square chapels.

In the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville stands a statue of J. B. Greuze, born in the town in 1725.

[edit] Economy

There are vineyards in the surrounding district and the town and its port have considerable commerce in wine and in stone from the neighboring quarries. Chairmaking is an important industry.

[edit] Miscellaneous

Tournus was the birthplace of Jean-Baptiste Greuze (17251805), French painter.

Population in 1906: 3,787.

[edit] References

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