LIMOGES, DIocese of. – A city and diocese in the departments of the Haute-Vienne and the Creuse. It covers an area of 11,085 sq. km. with a population of 522,442, of whom 475,000 are Catholic; it comprises 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 on the banks of the Vienne, 2 km. from the present city. The Romans called it *Augustoritum*; it then extended into the plain now occupied by the faubourg St-Martial. In the Middle Ages Limoges consisted of the *Cité*, the bishop’s residence with the cathedral and monasteries, etc., and the *Château*, the residence of the viscount and the civil population; these were like two distinct cities, enclosed by walls, with separate administrations and sometimes in conflict with each other.
The earliest list of bishops of Limoges is the autograph of the chronicler Ademaro, a monk of St Martial’s, which goes up to 1030; it was continued in the 13th century by another monk of the same abbey and reaches 1294. Gregory of Tours gives St Martial (v.) as the first bishop of Limoges, one of the seven bishops sent from Rome in the middle of the 6th century (Historia Francorum, I, 30), and he is commemorated on 30 June in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (L. Duchesne, Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, II, 2nd ed., Paris 1910, pp. 104-117). Other known bishops are Henry, exiled (d. 485), Ruricius I and II; their epitaphs were composed by Fortunatus (Carm., IV, 5), as was that of Exochius (ibid., IV, 6); Lupus, who signed the foundation charter of the monastery of Solignac in 622; Stadilo (846-60), who crowned Charles the Bald king of Aquitaine; Aldo, who attended the Council of Soissons (866).
Access to a crypt, a pilgrimage site, was gained from a basilica called St-Pierre-du-Sépulcre; it was divided into three chambers: the first contained the sarcophagi of St Martial and two of his priest companions, Alpinian and Stracolian; the second, a matron Valeria; the third, a duke Stephen. The sanctuary was served until the 9th century by ecclesiastics, the first of whom bore the title of *martyrius*; in 848 a monastery was established and the basilica of the Holy Saviour was built, the body of St Martial being translated thither. The dedication took place in 852; the building was rebuilt at the beginning of the 11th century and consecrated on 19 November 1028. In 1535 the monastery was secularized and the monks became canons; everything was destroyed during the French Revolution. A legend relates that St Martial, having gone to the pagan temple of Limoges, broke the statues of the pagan deities and consecrated the building to St Stephen. In 1012 Bishop Odon demolished the church to build a new one, which was burned down by Ademaro, viscount of Limoges. After restoration it was consecrated by Urban II on 29 December 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, a small image of Mary Magdalene and 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], pp. 59 ff.). The cathedral was rebuilt in 1273 in the style of those of Clermont-Ferrand and Narbonne. The choir was completed in 1327; the transept in 1499. The façade was decorated by Bishops Philip of Montmorency and Villiers de l’Isle-Adam (1517-30); their successor John of Langeac (1532-41) celebrated the jubilee; the last bays of the nave and the narthex were begun only in 1876. The tall bell tower dates from the 13th century. Inside the basilica are the tombs of Cardinal Rainaldo de la Porte, bishop of Limoges from 1294 to 1316, of Bishop John of Langeac (1532-41) and of Bernard Brun, bishop of Puy, Noyon and Auxerre (1350). The 15th-century stained glass represents the Annunciation, St Martial and St Valeria. The church possesses some valuable enamels.
The church of St-Pierre-du-Queyroix (of the Crossroads), though preserving 13th-century elements in the lower part of the façade, was almost entirely rebuilt during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries and again in the 19th. The tower (13th-14th c.) is a local feature also found in the cathedral and in St-Michel-des-Lions. Inside, the nave has cylindrical piers and fine stained glass 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, erected in 1373, is of the same type as that of St-Pierre-du-Queyroix but more slender and elegant, reaching 55 m. in height. The interior has three naves on piers; the 15th-century stained glass depicts scenes from the life of the Blessed 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 that name.
The church of St-Marie was formerly that of the Dominicans and preserved in 1319. The former episcopal palace (1766-86) now houses the municipal museum, and its adjoining garden is a public park. The former Séminaire des Ordinands has been in civil administration since 1819.
Characteristic are the two 13th-century bridges of St-Étienne and St-Martial.
Limoges was known under the Merovingians for its goldsmiths’ work and its mints.
Limoges is also famous for its porcelain industry, developed after the discovery of kaolin at St-Yrieix in 1768. In the artistic field, however, Limoges achieved universal fame above all for its enamel art, which flourished within its walls from the 11th century. It was indeed in the mid-12th century that the Limoges enamel school, with its splendid products created by both lay and religious artists especially in the abbeys of Grandmont, St Martial and Solignac, gained absolute pre-eminence over the schools of other French regions and of all Europe, exercising decisive influence even on Italian schools. This pre-eminence lasted until about the mid-14th century. Even in the 16th century there was a second flowering of Limoges enamel art, though using techniques quite different from the medieval ones. At this time local artists such as Nardon Pénicaud, Pierre Courteix, the Masbarreaux and the three Jean Pénicaud, Léonard Limousin and Conly Monilher also gained fame. Then in the 18th century a period of marked decline set in, until in 1875 a new local activity arose aiming to revive even in enamel art the glories of the past, with Dalpayrat, Lot, Blancher, Bourdery and later Bonnaud and Jouhaud. The local Société archéologique et historique du Limousin established the Musée national Adrien Dubouché as early as 1867, which contains ceramics, sculpture, paintings and enamels from the 14th to the 19th centuries.
The diocese of Limoges includes the abbey of Solignac (the ancient Solemniacum) to the south of Limoges on the Briance. The abbey was founded in 631 by St Eligius, who together with his disciple St Tilion made it the cradle of Limoges goldsmithing. The church, consecrated in 1143, has a façade with a double tier of arcading; on one of the portals is carved the Eternal Father between the symbols of the Evangelists John and Luke. It formerly had three bell towers. It has four domes and a very wide central nave. Below the apse opens a crypt. The stalls of the choir are decorated with the works of mercy (15th c.). The church preserves fragments of the reliquary of St Catherine in bronze and enamels (13th c.) and a reliquary of the head of St Théan in gilded bronze on a wooden bust of the 15th c. The monastic buildings of the 13th century were rebuilt in 1720; sacked during the Revolution, they have recently been 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.
BIBL.:
R. de Lasteyrie, Etudes sur les comtes et vicomtes de L. antérieurs d’an mille, Paris 1874; C. Simon, La Vicomte de L. avant le XVe siècle, 1883; P. Laforest, L. au XVIIe siècle, Limoges 1862; Eubel, I, pp. 313-14; II, p. 193; III, p. 239; L. Duchesne, Fastes épiscopaux de l’ancienne Gaule, II, 2nd ed., Paris 1907, pp. 47-53; J. Marquet de Vasselot, Les émaux limousins de la fin du XVe siècle et de la première partie du XVIe, 1921; R. Fage, La cathédrale de L., 1926; C. de Montcabrier, Le Musée d’honneur, 1930; Cottineau, J., 1616-20; Guide de la France chrétienne et missionnaire, 1948-49, 1914-48, pp. 359, 609-11, 1042.