Brioude
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Commune of Brioude |
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Location |
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03° 23' 06" E |
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45° 17' 42" N |
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Administration |
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chief town of 2 cantons |
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jean-jacques faucher |
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Statistics |
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Altitude |
414 m–622 m |
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Land area¹ |
13.52 km² |
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Population² |
6,820 |
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- Density (1999) |
504/km² |
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Miscellaneous |
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INSEE/Postal code |
43040/ 43100 |
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¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 mi² or 247 acres) and river estuaries. |
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² Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel). |
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Brioude
(Occitan:
Briude) is a
commune
of the
Haute-Loire
département,
in
France.
It stands on the banks of the
River Allier,
a tributary of the
Loire.
Brioude was in turn besieged and captured by the Goths (532), the Burgundians, the Saracens (732) and the Normans. Carolingian Brioude, remained a place of some importance: William I of Aquitaine minted deniers at Brioude; when Louis V of France married Adelaide of Anjou there in 980 they were crowned King and Queen of Aquitaine; the couple was mismatched in age, and Adelaide fled Louis' house in 982, to Arles. The feast of Saint Jullien, 28 August, drew such crowds to the saint's relics that in the mid-11th century the chapter was obliged to build a hostel to care for the indigent pilgrim and the sick. In 1181 the viscount of Polignac, who had sacked the town two years previously, made public apology in front of the church, and established a body of twenty-five knights to defend the relics of St Jullien. Odilo, later the reforming abbot of Cluny began his vocation at St Jullien of Brioude, where fifty-four canons, all of noble birth, held the rank of bishop: Odilo's biographer reports that he fled.For some time after 1361 the town was the headquarters of Bérenger, lord of Castelnau, who was at the head of one of the bands of military adventurers which then devastated France. The knights (or canons, as they afterwards became) of St Julian bore the title of counts of Brioude, and for a long time opposed themselves to the civic liberties of the inhabitants.
The Almanach de Brioude published annually from 1919 has incluided manby articles of local and broader interest.
Monsieur de Saint-Colombe died in Brioude in 1688.
Pierre Vigouroux (born on June 30, 1983), rugbyman playing in the AS Montferrandaise and till 2004 with the French U-21 team for the U-21 World Championships in Scotland.
