Chambres & Table d'hôtes

ALBI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albi


Albi is called the pink city because of the color of the bricks of its cathedral and its old center.

     

Albi is made up of the Cathedral of St. Cecile and Berbie Palace, which dominates the city center. Birthplace of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, it houses a museum includes a substantial collection of works by post-impressionist painter. Finally, Albi is mostly a high-rise history whose name was given to the followers of the Cathars, the Albigenses, who underwent a violent crackdown in the thirteenth century by the Catholic Church known as the Albigensian Crusade.

Monuments and tourist sites

Albi is rich in historical monuments. The center is remarkably well preserved and has many witnesses to the golden age of Albi. Old neighborhoods are rich in medieval streets, hotels and Renaissance views of the Tarn and bridges give this urban area is unique in France. The city of Albi trying since 1996 to include the urban center on the World Heritage list of UNESCO.

Monuments 

The Old bridge spans the Tarn since 1035 date of its construction. It has been redesigned several times and allowed the development of the city on the right bank with the neighborhood of the Madeleine. In the fourteenth century, it is fortified and has drawbridges. Another newer bridge allows to cross the Tarn. This is the Pont Neuf, built in 1868.

During the fifteenth and the sixteenth century, Albi has a significant prosperity through the cultivation and trade of pastel in the region. Albigenses rich are building mansions with several towers and loggias Italian. Thus, the most beautiful hotel in the River, the hotel and the hotel Gorsse of Reyna. The latter hosted the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Hotel is a hotel Reynès of Renaissance art built in 1520 by a merchant named pastel Reynès. The hotel has a courtyard built of brick and stone and surrounded by a loggia and sculptures of Francis I and his second wife, Eleonore of Austria. It is now the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Several streets in the urban center with half-timbered houses and encorbellements typical medieval architecture. La maison du Vieil Alby located at the corner of Béringuier Puech and Croix Blanche is a typical medieval house albigeoise. This is the home of the most visited Albi because it offers visitors a unique exhibition. Pharmacy penitents or house Enjalbert is another medieval house dating from the sixteenth century. It has a wooden sculpture depicting a phallic character.

Religious monuments

Berbie the palace and the Cathedral of St. Cecilia
The Palace of Berbie

The palace and gardens of Berbie the cathedral together with the whole of the Episcopal city built after the crusade against the Albigenses. The construction of such a building to protect the bishops of Albi, became the masters of the city of hostilities and bourgeois cathar Albi. It also helps protect against possible attacks and to strengthen the presence of the Inquisition. The name comes from Berbie occitan bisbe means bishops. In the thirteenth century, Bishop Bernard Castanet is the decisive figure in the construction of this set. He built the tower of fifty meters high, the four towers and walls. It surrounds the palace of curtain walls and outside until Tarn. It is at the origin a castle that is transformed over the centuries in residence. In 1905, the palace became the subject of the department and the mayor Andrieu installed Museum Albi. He was then after the death of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec museum in 1922 in honor of Toulouse-Lautrec with the allocation of his works by his mother to the municipality.

      

The St. Cecilia Cathedral was built between the thirteenth century and the sixteenth century by the bishops of Albi became lords of Albi after the crusade against the Albigenses. It is a masterpiece of Southern Gothic architecture with its unique brick and its interior consists of the largest Italian paintings in France. The cathedral has large size with 114 meters long, 35 meters wide and 40 meters high, making it the largest brick building in the world. The bell-tower stands at 78 meters high. The entrance is on the side in the nave and not by the main entrance under the tower because of lack of space. The cathedral was restored in the nineteenth century by the architect Cesar Daly who suréleva walls and buttresses of seven meters. Other changes were made in the fifteenth century with the door Dominique de Florence and the porch or canopy of the sixteenth century. In 1948, the cathedral is elevated to a basilica. The square around the cathedral St. Cecilia is the square of the same name that has been redeveloped with many pedestrian in 2005.

The collegiate church of Saint-Salvy is the oldest church in Albi high honor of San Salvi, the first bishop of Albi in the sixth century. The whole construction mix as stone and brick. Its architecture has long been modified from the eleventh to the eighteenth century. She has a twelfth-century cloister mixing Romanesque and Gothic. It is surrounded by beautiful old houses used to be the residence of the canons. The bell tower is a tower whose base romane date of the eleventh century and the first floor is Gothic. The top of the tower is topped by a crown brick topped by a tower of échauguette watcher said, looking Florentine.

Albi has a more modern church, the Church of Sainte-Madeleine, an Orthodox church, the Orthodox church Saint-Denis, and a Protestant church (temple reformed Albi).

Museums

The Toulouse-Lautrec Museum is a museum dedicated to the works of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was born in Albi. The museum tells the whole work of the artist's first composition on horses until his last canvas, a review of the Faculty of Paris through such major works at the Salon de la rue des Moulins.
 

Timetables
March: 10h-12h 14h-17h30
April - May: 10h-12h 14h-18h
June: 9h-12h 14h-18h
July - August: 9h-18h
September: 9h-12h 14h-18h
October: 10h-12h 14h-17h30
From November to February: 10h-12h 14h-17h
Closed on Tuesday from 1 October to 31 March.
Closed on 1 January 1 May 1 November and 25 December.

Albi has another important museum: the museum Lapérouse. It includes the collection of the explorer Jean-François de Galaup, Comte de Lapérouse nineteenth century. Collections can have an overview of knowledge of the world before Lapérouse until Cook browser, then the post Lapérouse.

This old farm set fully in the heart of the Tarn, has been tastefully renovated : All the rooms are with exposed beams, living-room with chimney and kitchen harmoniously matching the Provence and the Andalousia design. This Gîte will enable you to enjoy nature in full quietness.The holiday cottage is an haven of peace and tranquility , you will enjoy the fantastic view over the Dadou valley, engage in fishing for trout through different browse more or less sportsmen, undertake many hiking and treck in our forests, but also of sharing, according to the period, the host table around a regional gastronomy.