LIMOGES, Diocese of. - City and diocese in the departments of Haute-Vienne and Creuse. It has an area of 11,085 sq km with a population of 522,442 inhabitants, of whom 475,000 are Catholics; it has 480 parishes, served by 355 diocesan priests and 7 regulars, 3 male religious communities and 76 female (Annuario Pontificio, 1951, p. 247).
It is the ancient capital of the Lemovices, situated high up on the banks of the Vienne 2 km from the present-day city. The Romans called it Augustoritum; it later spread out into the plain now occupied by the faubourg St-Martial. In the Middle Ages L. was made up of the Cité, the bishop's residence with the Cathedral, monasteries, etc., and of the Château, the residence of the viscount and of the civil population; they were like two distinct cities, enclosed by walls, with autonomous administration and sometimes at war with each other.
The oldest list of the bishops of L. is the autograph one of the chronicler Adhemar, a monk of St. Martial, which goes up to 1030; it was continued in the 13th century by another monk of the same abbey and goes up to 1294. Gregory of Tours gives St. Martial (v.) as first bishop of L., as one of the seven bishops sent from Rome in the middle of the 3rd century (Historia Francorum, I, 30), who is commemorated on 30 June in the Hieronymian Martyrology (L. Duchesne, Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, II, 2nd ed., Paris 1910, pp. 104-117). Other known bishops are Henry, sent into exile (d. 485), Ruricius I and II; their epitaphs were composed by Fortunatus (Carm., IV, 5), like that of Exocuis (ibid., IV, 6); Lupus, who signed the foundation of the monastery of Solignac in 622; Stadalus (846-60), who crowned Charles the Bald king of Aquitaine; Aldo, who took part in the Council of Soissons (866).
From a basilica called St-Pierre-du-Sépulcre one entered a crypt, half of it a pilgrimage site, which was divided into three chambers: in the first were the sarcophagi of St. Martial and of two of his companion priests, Alpinianus and Stratoclinus, in the second a matron Valeria, in the third a duke Stephen. The sanctuary was served until the 9th century by clerics, among whom the first bore the title of martyriaria; in 848 the monastery was constituted, the basilica of the Most Holy Saviour was erected and the body of St. Martial was transferred there. The dedication took place in 852, the building was rebuilt at the beginning of the 11th century and consecrated on 19 Nov. 1028. In 1535 the monastery was secularized and the monks turned into canons; everything was destroyed by the French Revolution. A legend relates that St. Martial, having gone to the pagan temple of L., broke the statues of the pagan deities and consecrated the building to St. Stephen. In 1012 the bishop Odoin demolished the church to build a new one, which was set on fire by Adhemar viscount of L. Restored, it was consecrated by Urban II on 29 Dec. 1095. Burned by the inhabitants of the Château in 1105, it was repaired. The vault of the crypt is decorated with a colossal figure of Jesus Christ, with a small image of the Magdalene and with the symbols of the evangelists Luke and John (L. Bourdery, Peintures de la crypte de la cathédrale de L., in Bulletin de la Société archéologique du Limousin, 46 [1916], p. 59 ff.). The Cathedral was rebuilt in 1273 on the model of those of Clermont Ferrand and Narbonne. The choir was finished in 1327; the transept in 1499. The façade was decorated by the bishops Philippe de Montmorency and Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (1517-30); the successor Jean de Langeac (1532-41) made the jubé; the last bays of the nave and the narthex were begun only in 1876. The tall bell tower is of the 13th century. Inside the Basilica are the tombs of Card. Raynaud de la Porte, bishop of L. from 1294 to 1316, of the bishop Jean de Langeac (1532-41) and of Bernard Brun, bishop of Puy, Noyon, and Auxerre (1350). The 15th-century stained-glass windows represent the Administration, St. Martial and St. Valeria. The church possesses some precious enamels.
The church of St-Pierre-du-Queyroix (of the Quadrivium), while preserving elements of the 13th century in the lower part of the façade, was almost entirely rebuilt during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries and then in the 19th. The tower (13th-14th) is a local characteristic feature that is also found in the cathedral and in St-Michel-des-Lions. Inside, the nave has cylindrical pillars and beautiful stained-glass windows by J. Pénicaud (1510), much restored.
The church of St-Michel-des-Lions, begun in 1364, was extended in the 16th century. Its bell tower was erected in 1373, of the same type as that of St-Pierre-du-Queyroix, but more slender and elegant, and reaches a height of 55 m. The interior has three naves with pillars: the 15th-century stained-glass windows depict scenes from the life of the B. Virgin and of St. John the Baptist. In the high altar of 1889 in 15th-century style are preserved the relics of St. Martial, venerated until the Revolution in the church of the same name.
The church of Ste-Marie formerly belonged to the Dominicans and preserves a 13th-century portal. The old Episcopal Palace (1766-86) contains the Municipal Museum, and its adjoining garden is now a public garden. The old Séminaire des Ordinands passed to civil administration in 1819.
Characteristic are the two bridges of St-Etienne and St-Martial of the 13th century.
L. was known under the Merovingians for its goldsmithing products and for its mints.
L. is also very well known for the porcelain industry, which developed after the discovery of kaolin at St-Yrieix in 1768. In the artistic field, however, L. enjoyed universal fame above all for the art of enamel, which flourished within its walls from the 11th century onward. It was in fact in the middle of the 12th century that the Limousin school of enamels, with its splendid products, elaborated by both lay and religious artists especially in the abbeys of Grandmont, St. Martial and Solignac, acquired an absolute predominance over the schools of the other regions of France and of all Europe, exercising a decisive influence also on the Italian ones. It maintained this predominance until about the middle of the 14th century. Again in the 16th century there was a second flowering in the art of Limousin enamel, but following techniques entirely different from the medieval ones. At that time some local artists also acquired fame, such as Nardon Pénicaud, Pierre Courteix, the Masbarreaux and the three Jean Pénicaud, Léonard Limousin and Conly Monilher. Then in the 18th century a period of marked decline began, until 1875 was reached, when a new local activity arose, tending to revive even in the art of enamel the glories of the past, with Dalpayrat, Lot, Blancher, Bourdery and then Bonnaud and Jouhaud. The local Société archéologique et historique du Limousin organized the Musée national Adrien Dubouché as early as 1867, which contains ceramics, sculptures, paintings and enamels from the 14th to the 19th century.
To the diocese of L. belongs the abbey of Solignac (the ancient Solemniacum) south of L. on the Briance. The abbey was founded in 631 by St. Eligius, who together with his disciple St. Tillo made it the cradle of Limousin goldsmithing. The church, consecrated in 1143, has a façade with a double tier of small arches; on one of the portals the Eternal Father is carved among the symbols of the evangelists John and Luke. It formerly had three bell towers. It has four domes and a very wide central nave. Beneath the apse the crypt opens. The choir stalls are decorated with the works of mercy (15th century). The church preserves fragments of the reliquary of St. Catherine, in decorated bronze rated and enamels (13th century), and a reliquary of the head of St. Théan in gilded bronze on a wooden bust of the 15th century. The monastic buildings of the 13th century were rebuilt in 1720; plundered during the Revolution, they were recently restored and now house a rest home, a holiday camp and other Catholic works, under the title Centre d'action sociale de Solignac. - See pl. XCII.
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Enrico Josi