Tours

Sister cities

• Maribor

History

In Gallic times, Tours was an important crossing point over the Loire. It became part of the Roman Empire during the 1st century AD, and the city was named ("hill of Caesar"). The name evolved in the 4th century when the original Gallic name, Turones, became Civitas Turonum and then Tours. It was at this time that the Tours Amphitheatre was built. Tours became a metropolis in the Roman province of Lugdunum towards 380–388 AD, dominating Maine, Brittany, and the Loire Valley. One important figure in the city was Saint Martin of Tours, a bishop who shared his coat with a naked beggar in Amiens. The importance of Martin in the medieval Christian West made Tours, and its position on the route of pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, a major centre during the Middle Ages. In the 6th century, Gregory of Tours, author of the Ten Books of History, restored a cathedral destroyed by a fire in 561. Saint Martin's monastery benefited from its inception, at the very start of the 6th century from patronage and support from the Frankish king, Clovis I, which increased considerably the influence of the saint, the abbey and the city in Gaul. In the 9th century, Tours was at the heart of the Carolingian Renaissance, in particular because of Alcuin, of York in Northumbria, a renowned book collector and an abbot of Marmoutier Abbey. In 732, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi and an army of Muslim horsemen from Al-Andalus advanced deep into France, and were stopped at the Battle of Tours at Moussais-la-Bataille (between Châtellerault and Poitiers) by Charles Martel and his infantry. The Muslim army was defeated, preventing an Islamic conquest of France. In 845, Tours repelled the first attack of the Viking chief Haesten. In 850, the Vikings settled at the mouths of the Seine and the Loire.…

Most-observed species

• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,679
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,632
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,619
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,455
• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,306
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,139
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,967
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,734

Most recent

• M 4 — 2019-06-21
  2 km WSW of Vihiers, France
• M 4.2 — 2016-05-02
  6 km SE of L'Île-Bouchard, France
• M 2.7 — 2008-11-06
  12 km W of Saint-Gervais-les-Trois-Clochers, France
• M 2.6 — 2008-11-05
  4 km NNE of Mézières-en-Brenne, France
• M 2.5 — 2008-09-18
  1 km W of Ambillou, France
• M 3 — 2008-06-07
  3 km ENE of Cangey, France