Indre-et-Loire

History

Early times

Indre-et-Loire is one of the original 83 departments established during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from the former province of Touraine and of small portions of Orléanais, Anjou and Poitou. Its prefecture, Tours, was a centre of learning in the Early Middle Ages, having been a key focus of Christian evangelisation since St Martin became its first bishop around 375. From the mid-15th century, the royal court repaired to the Loire Valley, with Tours as its capital; the confluence of the Loire River and Cher River became a centre of silk manufacturing and other luxury goods, including the wine trade, creating a prosperous bourgeoisie.

Recent years

After the creation of the department it remained politically conservative, as Honoré de Balzac recorded in several of his novels. Conservative Tours refused to welcome the railways which instead were obliged to route their lines by way of Saint-Pierre-des-Corps on the city's eastern edge. The moderate temper of the department's politics remained apparent after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870: sentiments remained predominantly pro-royalist during the early years of the Third Republic. For most of the nineteenth century, Indre-et-Loire was a rural department, but pockets of heavy-duty industrialisation began to appear towards the century's end, accompanied by left-wing politics. 1920 saw the birth of the French Communist Party at the Congress of Tours. By 1920, Saint-Pierre-des-Corps had become a major railway hub and a centre of railway workshops: it had also acquired a reputation as a bastion of working class solidarity.

Geography

Indre-et-Loire is part of the region of Centre-Val de Loire; the neighbouring departments are Loir-et-Cher, Indre, Vienne, Maine-et-Loire and Sarthe.

Principal towns

The most populous commune is Tours, the prefecture. As of 2019, there are 10 communes with more than 10,000 inhabitants:

Demographics

|1801|268,924 |1821|282,372 |1836|304,271 |1851|315,641 |1872|317,027 |1886|340,921 |1901|335,541 |1911|341,205 |1921|327,743 |1931|335,226 |1946|349,685 |1954|364,706 |1962|395,210 |1968|437,866 |1975|478,597 |1982|506,093 |1990|529,345 |1999|553,747 |2006|580,312 |2011|593,683 |2016|606,223 |2020|612,119}}

Politics

The President of the Departmental Council is Jean-Gérard Paumier of The Republicans.

Current national assembly representatives

References

References

1. (4 May 2022). "Répertoire national des élus: les conseillers départementaux".
2. [https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/fichier/6011060/dep37.pdf Populations légales 2019: 37 Indre-et-Loire], INSEE
3. {{Cite EB1911
4. "Historique d'Indre-et-Loire".
5. "Évolution et structure de la population en 2016". INSEE.
6. Nationale, Assemblée. "Assemblée nationale ~ Les députés, le vote de la loi, le Parlement français".