Loudun

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Loudun (Loudùn in Poitevin-Saintongeais language) is a small town and commune of approximately 9,000 inhabitants in the Vienne département and in the Poitou-Charentes région of France. It is located 30 km south of the town of Chinon and 25km to the east of the town Thouars.

1 Geography
2 Sights
3 Miscellaneous
- 3.1 Famous Loudunois
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Geography

Approximate Latitude= 46-47 degrees N. Latitude
Approximate Longitude= 0-1 degrees E. Longitude

[edit] Sights

An ancient town, Loudun contains numerous old streets, and buildings and monuments of which five are Government-listed monuments. It is also the location of a vicus type archaeological site.

[edit] Miscellaneous

The 1952 book titled The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley tells the story of the trial of Urbain Grandier, priest of the town who was tortured and burned at the stake in 1634. He was accused of being in league with the devil and having seduced an entire convent of nuns, in what is seen by many scholars as one of the most sensational cases of mass possession and sexual hysteria in recorded history.

Based on Huxley's book, in 1969, Krzysztof Penderecki created an opera of the same name. The following year, Ken Russell directed the film The Devils, also based on Huxley's book, and a play by John Whiting.

[edit] Famous Loudunois

Loudun is the birthplace of:

Jean Salmon Macrin (1490-1557), Neo-Latin poet
Théophraste Renaudot (1586-1653), medical practitioner, inventor of French written press, journalist, philanthropist
Ismaël Bullialdus (1604-1694), astronomer
Marie Besnard, accused of poisoning in the '50s in what was a very mediatized trial; her story was the subject of a successful tv movie and of several books
René Monory, mayor of Loudun, senator of Vienne, president of the French Senate, Minister of Education, president of the Vienne General Council, fonder of the Futuroscope park of Poitiers

Nicolas Ghesquière (1972 - ), creator at the head of the French fashion house Balenciaga was born in 1972 in Comines, Nord-Pas-de-Calais but was always raised in Loudun where his parents own a golf course.