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Clermont-Ferrand

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Coordinates: 45°46′50″N, 03°05′15″E

Administration
Commune of Clermont-Ferrand Clermont-Ferrand coat of arms
Location
Coordinates	45°46′50″N, 03°05′15″E
Country	France
Region	Auvergne (capital)
Department	Puy-de-Dôme (prefecture)
Arrondissement	Clermont-Ferrand
Canton	Chief town of 9 cantons
Intercommunality	Clermont Communauté
Mayor	Serge Godard (PS) (2001- 2008)
Statistics
Elevation	321 m–602 m (avg. 358 m)
Land area^¹	42,67 km²
Population^² (2005)	139,600
- Density	3,214/km² (2005)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	63113/ 63000
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).

Clermont-Ferrand (Auvergnat dialect of Occitan: Clarmont-Ferrand / Clarmont d'Auvèrnhe) is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne region, with a population of approximately 140,000 (2005). Its metropolitan area had 409,558 inhabitants at the 1999 census.

Rue Montlosier, in Clermont-Ferrand with the Puy de Dôme mountain in the background.

It is the prefecture (capital) of the Puy-de-Dôme department. Serge Godard is the current Mayor of the city.

Clermont-Ferrand sits on the plain of Limagne in the Massif Central and is surrounded by a major industrial area. The city is famous for the chain of volcanoes surrounding it, the Chaîne des Puys. The Puy-de-Dôme (13km from the city) is the highest of these and well-known for the telecommunication antennas that sit on its top and are visible from far away.

Clermont-Ferrand's most famous public square is place de Jaude, on which stands a grand statue of Vercingetorix sitting imperiously on a horse and holding a glaive. The inscription reads: J'ai pris les armes pour la liberté de tous (English: I took to arms for the liberty of all). This statue was sculpted by Frédéric Bartholdi who also created the Statue of Liberty.

1 History
2 Economy
3 Culture
4 References
5 External links

Statue of Vercingétorix on the main square of the city

Clermont ranks among the oldest cities of France. The first known mention was by the Greek geographer Strabo, who called it the "metropolis of the Arverni" (meaning their oppidum, civitas or tribal capital). The city was at that time called Nemessos—a Gaulish word for a sacred forest, and was situated on the mound where the current cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand was constructed. It was somewhere in the area around Nemossos where the Arverni chieftain Vercingetorix (later to head a unified Gallic resistance to Roman invasion under Julius Caesar) was born nearby in around 72 BC. Also, Nemossos was situated not far from the plateau of Gergovia, where Vercingetorix — some months before capitulating at Alesia — pushed back the Roman assault at the Battle of Gergovia in 52 BC. After the Roman conquest, the city became known as Augustonemetum sometime in the 1st century, a name which combined its original Gallic name with that of the Emperor Augustus. Its population was estimated at 15,000–30,000 inhabitants in the 2nd century, making it one of the largest cities of Roman Gaul. It then became Arvernis in the 3rd century (taking its name, like other Gallic cities in this era, from the people who lived within its walls), going through an expansion phase that ended in the mid-3rd century.

The city became the seat of a bishop in the 5th century, at the time of the bishop Namatius or Saint Namace, who built a cathedral here described by Gregory of Tours. Clairmont went through a dark period after the disappearance of the Roman Empire and during the whole High Middle Ages, marked by pillaging by the peoples who invaded Gaul. Between 471 and 475, Auvergne was often the target of Visigothic expansion, and the city was frequently besieged, including once by Euric. Although defended by Sidonius Apollinaris, at the head of the diocese from 468 to 486, and the patrician Ecdicius, the city was ceded to the Visigoths by emperor Julius Nepos and became part of the Visigothic kingdom in 507. A generation later, it became part of the kingdom of the Franks. On November 8 535, the first Council of Clermont opened at Arvernis (Clermont), with fifteen bishops participating, including Caesarius of Arles, Saint Nizier of Lyons (bishop of Trèves) and Saint Hilarius, bishop of Mende. Sixteen decrees were made there, notably the second canon that recalls that the granting of episcopal dignity must be according to the merits and not as a result of intrigues.

In 848, the city was renamed Clairmont, after the castle Clarus Mons. During this era, it was an episcopal city ruled by its bishop. Clermont was not spared by the Vikings at the time of the weakening of the Carolingian Empire either, being ravaged by the Normans under Hasting or Hastingen for the first time in 862 and 864 and, while its bishop Sigon carried out reconstruction work, again in 898 (or 910, according to some sources). Bishop Étienne II built a new Roman cathedral on the site of the current cathedral, consecrated in 946 but (apart from the towers, only replaced by the current ones in the 19th century, and some parts of the crypt, still visible) destroyed to build current Gothic cathedral.

Clairmont was the starting point of the First Crusade from the Christian world to free Jerusalem from Muslim domination—Pope Urban II preached the crusade there in 1095 at the Second Council of Clermont. In 1120, following the repeated crises between the counts of Auvergne and the bishops of Clairmont, in order to counteract the clergy's power the counts founded the new rival city of Montferrand on a mound next to Clairmont's fortifications, on the model of the new cities of the Midi springing up in the 12th and 13th centuries. Right up to the early modern period, the two remained separate cities - Clairmont an episcopal city, Montferrand a comtal one.

In 1551, Clermont became a royal city, and in 1610, the inseparable property of the Crown. On 15 April 1630, the Edict of Troyes (the First Edict of Union) forcibly joined the two cities of Clermont and Montferrand. This union was confirmed in 1731 by Louis XV with the Second Edict of Union. At this time Montferrand was no more than a satellite city of Clermont, in which condition it remained until the beginning of the 20th century. Wishing to retain its independence, Montferrand made three demands for independence, in 1789, 1848, and 1863.

In the 20th century, the construction of the Michelin factories and city gardens, which shaped the modern Clermont-Ferrand, definitively reunited Clermont and Montferrand. Today, although the two cities are amalgamated, one may find in Clermont-Ferrand two distinct downtowns, and Montferrand retains a strong identity.

Food production and processing as well as engineering are major employers in the area, as are the many research facilities of major computer software and pharmaceutical companies. The French tyre manufacturer Michelin created the radial tyre and grew up from Clermont-Ferrand to become a worldwide leader in its industry. It has kept its headquarters in the city.

One of the 48 public fountains with the cathedral in background. The fountain and the cathedral are made with the typical black volcanic stone of the area named "pierre de Volvic".

Clermont-Ferrand's most famous figure is the mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal who tested Evangelista Torricelli's hypothesis concerning the influence of gas pressure on liquid equilibrium. This is the famous experiment where a vacuum is created in a mercury tube: Pascal's experiment had his brother-in-law carry a barometer to the top of the Puy-de-Dôme. The Université Blaise-Pascal (or Clermont-Ferrand II) is located primarily in the city and is named after him.

A racing circuit, the Charade Circuit, close to the city, using closed-off public roads held the French Grand Prix in 1965, 1969, 1970 and 1972. It was a daunting circuit, with such harsh elevation changes that caused some drivers to be ill as they drove. Winners included Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart (twice), and Jochen Rindt.

The city is also host to a high-profile rugby union club, ASM Clermont Auvergne, as well as Clermont Foot Auvergne, a football club that will compete in France's second division, Ligue 2, during the 2007-2008 season.

Clermont-Ferrand hosts an annual international short film festival, which originated in 1979.

Additionally, the city was the subject of the acclaimed documentary The Sorrow and the Pity, which used Clermont-Ferrand as the basis of the film, which told the story of France under Nazi occupation and the Vichy regime of Marshal Pétain.

Notre-Dame du Port

Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral of Notre-Dame de l'Assumption

Clermont-Ferrand has two famous churches :

Notre-Dame du Port: a Romanesque church built during the 11th and 12th centuries (the bell tower was rebuilt during the 19th century). It was nominated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1998.
Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral (Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption de Clermont-ferrand): a Gothic cathedral built between the 13th and the 19th centuries.