Loudun

Loudun
Commune
Porte du Martray in Loudun
Coat of arms
Location of Loudun
Loudun Loudun
Coordinates: 47°00′38″N 0°05′04″E
Country	France
Region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department	Vienne
Arrondissement	Châtellerault
Canton	Loudun
Intercommunality	Pays Loudunais
Government
• Mayor (2014–2019)	Joël Dazas
Area 1	43.77 km2 (16.90 sq mi)
Population  (2021)	6,743
• Density	150/km2 (400/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	86137 /86200
Elevation	47–120 m (154–394 ft) (avg. 90 m or 300 ft)
Website	www.ville-loudun.fr
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Loudun (/luːˈdʌn/; French pronunciation: [lu.dœ̃]) is a commune in the Vienne department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in western France.

It is located 30 km (19 mi) south of the town of Chinon and 25 km to the east of the town Thouars. The area south of Loudun is the place of origin of a significant portion of the Acadians, one of the early founding people of New France in Canada.

Demographics

Historical population of Loudun

Year	1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2006	2009
Population	6214	7094	8035	8120	7854	7704	7588	7146

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.

History

• The Treaty of Loudun, negotiated and signed in Loudun on May 3, 1616, temporarily resolved the power struggle for control of the French government between the Prince of Condé (next in line for Louis XIII's throne) and queen mother Marie de Medici's favorite Concino Concini, Marquis of Ancre.
• Loudun was also the site of hysteria concerning the supposed mass possession of nuns by the Devil in 1634 (see Loudun possessions).

Loudun in art

• Eyvind Johnson's 1949 novel Drömmar om rosor och eld was based on the Loudun possessions.
• Aldous Huxley's 1952 non-fiction novel The Devils of Loudun was also based on the Loudun possessions.
• John Whiting's 1961 theatre play The Devils, commissioned by Sir Peter Hall for the Royal Shakespeare Company, was based on Aldous Huxley's novel.
• A Polish film, Mother Joan of the Angels (1961), is based on Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz short story which transposes the story to Poland.
• Krzysztof Penderecki's 1969 opera The Devils of Loudun (Die Teufel von Loudun), which premiered at the Hamburg State Opera, was based on Huxley's novel and Whiting's play.
• Ken Russell's 1971 film The Devils was based on Huxley's novel and Whiting's play.

Personalities

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
• Jean-Charles Cornay, martyr.
• Marie Besnard, accused of poisoning in the 1950s 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 (born 1972), creative director 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.

Loudun is the place of death of:

• Urbain Grandier (18 August 1634), French Catholic priest who was burned at the stake after being convicted of witchcraft.
• André Andrejew (16 March 1967), French-Russian classic film production designer, built decors for movies produced in Germany, France, England and the US.

Twin towns

• Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
• Audun le Tiche, France
• Shippagan, Canada
• Leuze, Belgium
• Burgos, Spain

See also

• Lugus
• Communes of the Vienne department

External links

• http://www.ville-loudun.Fr