In the 16th century, the Renaissance, which called for a return to the models of Roman antiquity, spread throughout Europe from Italy, notably through treatises and engravings referring to the treatise De architectura by Vitruvius (90–20 BC), Roman theorist of ancient architecture. Each center of culture and creation reinterpreted these new references according to its local traditions.
At the beginning of the 16th century Toulouse was experiencing a prosperous period. It was the third largest city in France, a rich and powerful provincial capital that the woad trade was providing with merchants of international stature. The city was also the seat of the first French provincial parliament, whose jurisdiction extended from the Rhône to Gascony, of a university renowned even beyond the borders (mainly in law), and of a large archbishopric in which the church of Saint-Sernin was considered one of the holiest places in the world.
These factors of dynamism fostered a deep humanist impulse, affirmed the city's role as a radiant artistic place and maintained a climate of social emulation in which it was important to be visible. These characteristics of the Toulouse Renaissance can be found in the richness and quality of its architecture, fortunately largely preserved but perhaps difficult to apprehend in its entirety because it is somewhat scattered throughout the vast perimeter of the historical centre and moreover partially hidden in courtyards not easily accessible to the public.
It is therefore the purpose of this article to bring together and to present the various elements of the Renaissance architecture of Toulouse, which earned the city to be described as "the most beautiful city in France" by the scholar Joseph Justus Scaliger at the end of the sixteenth century.
Architecture as a support for municipal ambitions
A home of erudition and humanism, Toulouse welcomed the Renaissance and looked back on its prestigious ancient past of which there were few visible remains, the ancient Roman monuments having served as "brick quarries" throughout the Middle Ages. At the request of the capitouls (the city's chief magistrates) scholars such as Nicolas Bertrand, Guillaume de La Perrière and Antoine Noguier revived the Palladia Tolosa evoked by the Latin poets Martial, Ausonius and Sidonius Apollinaris, the ancient Toulouse placed by emperor Domitian under the patronage of the goddess Pallas (Minerva) presented as the protector of arts and letters. In 1522, at the instigation of the clerk Pierre Salamon, the municipal palace of capitulum (chapter) became Capitolium (Capitol), reflecting the desire to imitate Rome and its ancient references.
These idealized links between the municipal institution of Toulouse and Ancient Rome found expression in the arts and in particular in architecture.
The towers of the former Capitole
The Capitole Archive Tower
Fearing an invasion of Languedoc by the Spanish army of Charles V who was maneuvering in the Pyrenees, and concerned to protect their gunpowder reserve and their precious archives, the capitouls built between 1525 and 1530 by Laurent Clary a tower then called "Archive tower", which is now called "the Keep" (le Donjon in French) for its fortified appearance. On the ground floor was the "Small Consistory", a prestigious room where the capitouls held their private meetings.
On a façade of this tower, in a stone frame arranged in the manner of an ancient temple whose column capitals implement the superimposition of the Doric and Ionic orders, the capitouls presented themselves as Roman consuls. The Latin inscription engraved in the stone announces: FIEBAT ANNO CHRISTIANAE SALUTIS MDXXV IDIBS NOVEBR NOBILIBUS PREINSIGNITIS CAPITOLINIS DECURIONIBUS, which means "Was made the year of salvation 1525, at the ides of November, by the noble and very distinguished decurions of the Capitol". By posing as "decurions" sitting in a "Capitol", the capitouls of the Renaissance hoped to put forward a historical legitimacy which they claimed dated back to antiquity and exceeded that of the kings of France, in the face of a royal administration and a Parliament that tended more and more to limit their prerogatives and the municipal liberties they had conquered.