Limoges-Bénédictins station

Limoges-Bénédictins (French: Gare de Limoges-Bénédictins) is the main railway station of Limoges. It is situated on the Orléans–Montauban railway. It was named Bénédictins due to the presence of a Benedictine monastery closed during the French Revolution.

Limoges-Bénédictins
Location4, place Maison-Dieu
87036 Limoges
Haute-Vienne
France
Coordinates45°50′10″N 1°16′3″E
Owned bySNCF
Operated bySNCF
Line(s)Orléans–Montauban railway
Platforms5
Tracks10 + service tracks
Construction
ArchitectRoger Gonthier
Other information
Station code87592006
History
Opened16 June 1856

History

The CF du PO opened the first railway line in the city in the 1850s. The first station, built of wood, opened on 16 June 1856. The first stone-built station opened in 1860.

On 21 November 1918, the Limoges city council and CF du PO signed an agreement regarding the construction of a new station. Work lasted from 1924 and 1929. The station was inaugurated on 2 July 1929.

The Germans also used an underground roadway as a passive defense shelter, located under the tracks, which previously linked the Ambazac road to Locarno Avenue, now partly walled. The "Wehrmacht Reserved" sign (nur für Wehrmacht) is always present

On the night of 23–24 June 1944, thanks to information from the Resistance, the Allies bombarded the Puy-Imbert marshalling yard in Limoges, preventing the movement of trains for more than a week. The next day, the Germans requisitioned the labor available to clear and clear ... under a sun of lead.

The station was listed as a monument historique on 15 January 1975 and work to restore the Great Hall ended in 1979.[1]

About 13:20 on 5 February 1998, a fire broke out under the station's dome. The city's population was deeply touched and the dome was rebuilt to its original design.

The railway accident at Brétigny-sur-Orge is a derailment on 12 July 2013 at the Brétigny railway station in the commune of Brétigny-sur-Orge (Essonne), 28 km south of Paris. Following the failure of a splint, a metal part used to connect two consecutive rails, several cars from a passenger train between Paris-Austerlitz and Limoges-Bénédictins derailed, resulting in the death of seven people.

The Limoges station also welcomed on May 20, 2008 the filming of an advertising clip for the perfume Chanel No 5, "Un train de nuit", directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and featuring actress Audrey Tautou. The rest of the clip was shot in the stations of Nice and Istanbul, around the theme of the Orient-Express. At the end, broadcast in 2009, the station appears stealthily at the very beginning of the clip, Audrey Tautou running on the forecourt and making fly some pigeons. This clip suggests that the Limoges station could be the departure of a direct train to Istanbul

Architecture

Bénédictins station was designed by architect Roger Gonthier. A particularity of the station is that it was built over the ten railway lines as opposed to next to them. A large 90 by 78 metre platform was built over the line to support the station building.

The building is made of a concrete bone structure, filled in with limestone. The dome which covers the passenger concourse is made of a metallic framework, covered in copper.

On the Southwest corner is a 67-metre-tall (220 ft) clock tower composed of thirteen levels. It is mounted by a dome itself mounted by a five-metre-tall (16 ft) vase. Below these are four 4-metre-wide (13 ft) clocks.

The first floors are occupied by offices. The view from the top floors is stunning over the city of Limoges, part of the agglomeration and the Vienne valley. You can see most of the most important monuments of the city: the town hall, the churches of Saint-Michel and Saint-Pierre, the Gay-Lussac high school, the city of Coutures, the Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Limoges, the Bastide, The technopole or the castle of the Bastide.

Services

The following services call at Limoges-Bénédictins as of January 2018:[2]

  • intercity services (Intercités) Paris - Vierzon - Limoges - Toulouse
  • intercity services (Intercités) Bordeaux - Périgueux - Limoges - Montluçon - Roanne - Lyon
  • local service (TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine) Limoges - Thiviers - Périgueux
  • local service (TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine) Limoges - Saint-Yrieix - Brive-la-Gaillarde
  • local service (TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine) Limoges - Uzerche - Brive-la-Gaillarde
  • local service (TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine) Limoges - Ussel
Preceding station   SNCF   Following station
La Souterraine
toward Lille-Europe
TGV
Terminus
Intercités
Saint-Sulpice-Laurière
La Souterraine
Intercités
toward Toulouse
Les Bardys
TER Centre-Val de Loire 1.3Terminus
Nieul
toward Poitiers
TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine 2Terminus
TerminusTER Nouvelle-Aquitaine 3
Limoges-Montjovis
toward Angoulême
TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine 4L
toward Périgueux
TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine 5L
TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine 6L
TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine 8L
Saint-Priest-Taurion
toward Ussel
TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine 10L
Ambazac
toward Montluçon
toward Bordeaux
TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine 24Terminus

References

  1. Base Mérimée: PA00100349, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French) Gare des Bénédictins
  2. TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine Archived 2019-02-07 at the Wayback Machine, Fiches horaires, accessed 30 January 2018.
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