Brignoles

Brignoles
Brignoles
	Pedestrian street in Brignoles.
	Coat of arms
	Location of Brignoles
Country	France
Region	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Department	Var
Arrondissement	Brignoles
Canton	Brignoles
Intercommunality	Comté de Provence
Government
• Mayor (2008–2014)	Claude Gilardo
Area 1	70.53 km2 (27.23 sq mi)
Population (2008)	15,912
• Density	230/km2 (580/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	83023 /83170
Elevation	190–767 m (623–2,516 ft)
	1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Brignoles (French pronunciation: [bʁiɲɔl]) is a commune in the Var département in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.

It was the summer residence of the counts of Provence. Their castle dates from the thirteenth century.

Personalities

It was the birthplace of:

Antoine Albalat (1856-1935), writer specialising in French literature.
Saint Louis of Toulouse (1274–1297), bishop of Toulouse.
François d'Arbaud de Porchères, poet born in Brignoles in 1590, died in Senevoy in 1640. Writer of numerous poems, he was made, in 1634, the first Immortel of the Académie française, to occupy seat 19.
Louis Paul Baille (born 1 July 1768 in Brignoles, died 2 October 1821 in Paris), baron de Saint-Pol et de l'Empire, French soldier of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Amy Cissé (1969-...), former French international basketball player.
Manu Diaz (1955-...), former rugby union player.
François Granet (1692-1741), man of letters.
François Guisol (1803-1874), poet and author.
Fabrice Hadjadj (1971-...), philosopher and dramatist, teacher at the Lycée Ste Jeanne d'Arc since 2002.
Jean-Jacques Jauffret (1965), film director.
Joseph-Louis Lambot (1814-1887), the inventor of ferro-cement which led to the development of reinforced concrete. His first construction was a boat made of cement which he tested on the lake at Besse-sur-Issole in 1848. The original prototype is preserved in the museum at Brignoles. This boat was patented on January 30, 1855, and presented at the 1855 World's Fair in Paris (Exposition Universelle - 1855).
Jean-Jacques Marcel, (13 June 1931-3 October 2014) footballer.
Catherine Matausch (1960-...), journalist.
Jean-Baptiste Maunier (1990-...), actor
René Morizur (1944-2009), musician, died and buried in Brignoles.
Victor Nicolas (1906–1979), sculptor who created many monuments in the departments of Var and Alpes Maritimes
Joseph Parrocel (1646-1704), painter.
Christian Philibert (1965-...), film director and screenwriter.
François-Juste-Marie Raynouard, writer born in Brignoles in 1761. A bust of him by the sculptor Victor Nicolas, is in the Place St Pierre and the Lycée de Brignoles carries his name.
Adolphe Rossollin, (born in Brignoles in or about 1781, died in Paris in April 1815), poet.
Patrick Valéry (1969-...), former footballer.