Corrèze

Corrèze
—  Department  —

Coat of arms
Location of Corrèze in France
Coordinates:
Country France
Region Limousin
Prefecture Tulle
Subprefectures Brive-la-Gaillarde
Ussel
Government
 • President of the General Council François Hollande (PS)
Area1
 • Total 5,857 km2 (2,261.4 sq mi)
Population (2007)
 • Total 242,038
 • Rank 80th
 • Density 41.3/km2 (107/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Department number 19
Arrondissements 3
Cantons 37
Communes 286
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Corrèze (French pronunciation: [kɔ.ʁɛːz]; Occitan: Corresa) is a department in south central France, named after the Corrèze River.

The inhabitants of the department are called Corréziens or Corréziennes according to gender.

Contents

History

Corrèze is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It includes part of the former province of Limousin (the Bas-Limousin).

The 1851 census recorded a population level of 320,866: this remained relatively constant for the rest of the nineteenth century. During the twentieth century, however, Corrèze shared the experience of many of the country's rural departments as the population fell steadily.

Within Corrèze the nineteenth century railway planners, influenced in part by the department's topography, endowed Brive-la-Gaillarde with good connections and a major junction from which railway lines fanned out in six different directions. The railways arrived in 1860, at an opportune moment, directly after phylloxera had destroyed the local wine industry. The new railways enabled the farms in the area surrounding Brive to specialise in fruits and vegetables which could now be transported rapidly to the larger population centres of central and southern France. Locally, the new agriculture triggered the development, in the Brive basin, of related businesses and industries such as the manufacture of jams and liquors, as well as timber/paper based packaging businesses.

In 1900 both Brive and the prefecture, Tulle each had fewer than 20,000 inhabitants. By 2010 the population of the Brive urban area was nearly 90,000, however, while Tulle still had fewer than 20,000 registered inhabitants.

Geography

The department is part of the current region of Limousin. It is surrounded by the department of Creuse, Haute-Vienne, Cantal, Puy-de-Dôme, Lot, and Dordogne. Tulle is the prefecture of Corrèze and Brive-la-Gaillarde the largest city.

Politics

The President of the General Council is François Hollande of the Socialist Party.

Party seats
Union for a Popular Movement 18
• Socialist Party 16
• French Communist Party 2
• Miscellaneous Left 1

Personalities

Personalities who were born or have significantly lived in Corrèze include:

See also

External links