View source for Tulle

{{short description|Prefecture and commune in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France}}
{{For|the net fabric|Tulle (netting)}}
{{More citations needed|date=September 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox French commune
| name                 = Tulle
| native name          = {{native name|oc|Tula}}
| commune status       = [[Prefectures of France|Prefecture]] and [[Communes of France|commune]]
| image                = Tulle Préfecture.jpg
| caption              = Prefecture building in Tulle
| image coat of arms   = Blason tulle.svg
| arrondissement       = Tulle
| canton               = Tulle
| INSEE                = 19272
| postal code          = 19000
| mayor                = [[Bernard Combes]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Répertoire national des élus: les maires |url=https://www.data.gouv.fr/fr/datasets/r/2876a346-d50c-4911-934e-19ee07b0e503 |publisher=data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises |date=13 September 2022 |language=fr |access-date=24 November 2022 |archive-date=28 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628030259/https://www.data.gouv.fr/fr/datasets/r/2876a346-d50c-4911-934e-19ee07b0e503 |url-status=live }}</ref>
| term                 = 2020&ndash;2026
| party                = [[Socialist Party (France)|PS]]
| intercommunality     = [[Communauté d'agglomération Tulle Agglo|CA Tulle Agglo]]
| coordinates          = {{Wikidatacoord|Q157713|display=inline,title}}
| elevation min m      = 185
| elevation max m      = 460
| area km2             = 24.44
| population           = {{France metadata Wikidata|population_total}}
| population date      = {{France metadata Wikidata|population_as_of}}
| population footnotes = {{France metadata Wikidata|population_footnotes}}
| city motto           = Sunt rupes virtutis iter<br>(There are rocks on the path to virtue)
| population demonym   = Tullistes
}}

'''Tulle''' ({{IPA|fr|tyl|lang|Fr-Paris--Tulle.ogg}}; {{Langx|oc|Tula}} {{IPA|oc|ˈtylɔ|}}) is a [[Communes of France|commune]] in central [[France]]. It is the third-largest town in the former region of [[Limousin]] and is the capital of the [[Departments of France|department]] of [[Corrèze]], in the [[Regions of France|region]] of [[Nouvelle-Aquitaine]]. Tulle is also the episcopal see of the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulle]].

Stretching over more than three kilometres in the narrow and tortuous [[Corrèze (river)|Corrèze]] valley, Tulle spreads its old quarters on the hillside overlooking the river, while the [[Tulle Cathedral|Notre-Dame cathedral]] emerges from the heart of the town. Known sometimes as "the town on seven hills", Tulle rose to prominence through the development of its manufacturing sector.

==History==

===Antiquity===
{{unreferencedsect|date=September 2025}}
The origins of the town are still subject to debate today but it would seem that the present puy Saint-Clair, a rocky spur with steep slopes separating the [[Corrèze (river)|Corrèze]] valley from that of the Solane, was an ideal location for the establishment of a [[Gauls|Gallic]] oppidum. For a long time, it seems that the town has been an important crossroads on the road between [[Armorica|Armorique]] and the [[Mediterranean Sea]] and on the road between [[Gallia Aquitania|Aquitaine]] and the [[Rhone Valley]], both of which crossed the Corrèze at this point by a ford.

With the [[Roman Gaul|Roman occupation]], the place would have been converted into a necropolis and temple in honour of [[Tutela]], a [[Roman mythology|Roman]] divine power to whom the protection of people, things and especially places was entrusted, would have been built. This Roman goddess, protector of the travellers who used to use the ford, is the namesake of the city. The temple of Tutela must have been located in the Trech district, whose name refers to the crossing of a river. The real urban centre of the region moved a few kilometres north, to the commune of Naves and the site of [[Tintignac]], which became a crossroads between the Roman roads that followed the ancient routes of the Celtic period.

===Middle Ages===
{{unreferencedsect|date=September 2025}}
[[File:Cathédrale N-D de Tulle 01.jpg|thumb|left|The cathedral Notre-Dame of Tulle]]

The [[Merovingian dynasty|Merovingian]] period would have seen the Christianization of the city and the establishment of three places of worship dedicated to St. Martin, St. Peter and St. Julian. The city officially entered history only with the transformation in the 7th century of the church dedicated to Saint Martin into a monastery under the impetus of Calmine, already founder of the monastery of Mozat in Auvergne. Around the places of worship began to gather the inhabitants of the country and Tulle became once again an urban centre, a status lost since the Roman conquest.

The town was plundered several times by the [[Vikings]], despite being several hundred kilometres from the sea, and it was during one of these sackings, in [[846]], that the first monastery was destroyed. To warn the inhabitants of the town of the arrival of the [[Vikings]], a watchtower was built on a rocky promontory at [[Cornil]], a few kilometres downstream from the [[Corrèze (river)|Corrèze]]. 

The place was nevertheless considered safe by many churches on the Atlantic coast who had sent their relics there to preserve them from looting, notably those of Saint Clair, Saint Lô and Saint Baumard. The monastery was later rebuilt but disappeared in the 11th century. In 1989, excavations under the nave of the present cathedral uncovered the remains of an [[apsidiole]] dating from the [[Carolingian period]] as well as a poly-lobed portal of [[Mozarabs|Mozarabic]] influence.

New constructions are undertaken for the abbey, now dedicated to [[Martin of Tours|Saint Martin]] and converted to [[Benedictine rule]] in the 11th century. On a visit to Tulle in 1095, [[Pope Urban II]] granted it his protection. The first stone of the new abbey church was laid in 1130 but the building was not completed until two centuries later. The spire of the 12th century culminates at a height of 75 metres, making it the highest in [[Limousin]]. In 2005, during construction in the vicinity of the cathedral, excavations uncovered the north wall of the medieval church of Saint-Julien, the discovery of a cemetery and three granite sarcophagi dating from the High Middle Ages. In addition, the [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]] [[cloister]] is the last one preserved in [[Limousin]].

In 1317, [[Pope John XXII]] created the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulle|diocese of Tulle]] by detaching fifty-two parishes from the diocese of Limoges and the abbey-church became a cathedral. During the [[Hundred Years' War]], the English took the city in 1346 before being driven out of it a month later by the Count of Armagnac, suffering in quick succession two trying sieges during which the inhabitants were reduced to famine. In 1370, the city sided with the King of France, [[Charles V of France|Charles V]], which earned it tax exemption and the ennoblement of several bourgeois families. But in 1373, [[John of Gaunt|the Duke of Lancaster]] appeared before the city and demanded that the gates be opened to him, and, in the absence of any command, a representative assembly of the population was convened and decided to carry out a new sacking. The pardon of the King of France for this betrayal took place in 1375.

The [[Black Death]] hit the city in 1348 and, on the evening of 23 June, in despair, the city authorities decided to march behind a statue of Saint John to stop what was considered a divine scourge. The plague ceased shortly afterwards, and the Tullists promised to renew this procession every year. It is still perpetuated today and is called the "Procession of the Lunade".

At the beginning of the 15th century, the town fell victim to the so-called "roadmen", brigands such as Jean de La Roche who set fire to the town in 1426 or Rodrigue de Villandrando to whom the town had to pay a large ransom in order to be spared in 1436. In 1430, the bishop recognised the power of thirty-four prud'hommes, also called "boniviri", who had military and financial powers but who had in fact been dealing with the affairs of the community unofficially since the 13th century. In 1443, [[Charles VII of France|Charles VII]] convened the Estates General of Bas-Limousin in Tulle.

The town was then divided between l'Enclos, the district around the abbey-church where the nobles, bourgeois and clerics lived, and the upper town, where most of the population lived, around the castle, located on the puy Saint-Clair and which is still characterized today by its narrow, steep streets, sometimes with stairs. In the 14th century, several noble families (Saint-Martial de Puy-de-Val, Rodarel de Seilliac, ...) began to extend the town on the left bank of the Corrèze, opposite the [[Tulle Cathedral|Cathedral]], in the Alverge district, on the road towards [[Auvergne]]. In the 15th century, the city expanded outside its ramparts, in suburbs along the roads towards [[Aquitaine]] and the South (la Barrière and le Pilou), to [[Limoges]] and [[Paris]] (la Barussie, le Trech, le Fouret, la Rivière) and towards [[Auvergne]] (l'Alverge and le Canton).

===Modern period===
{{unreferencedsect|date=September 2025}}
[[File:Tulle 2207.jpg|thumb|View in front of the cathedral in Tulle]]

The abbey is practically disused with the secularization of 1514. The bishop had a castle built and the refectory became the seat of the court. In 1566, King [[Charles IX of France|Charles IX]] endows the town with a town hall and a consulate which definitively reduces the power of the bishop.

During the [[French Wars of Religion|Wars of Religion]], Tulle held out for the Catholics; the town first resisted the [[Huguenots]] in 1577, but the troops of the Viscount of Turenne took bloody revenge in 1585. They ransacked and devastated the town after an assault that the Protestant poet [[Agrippa d'Aubigné]] recounted.

In the 16th century, the nobles and bourgeois of Tulle engaged in a veritable architectural competition, of which buildings with finely crafted facades in [[Renaissance]] style such as the Hôtel de Lauthonye (1551), the Hôtel de Ventadour or the Loyac house described by [[Prosper Mérimée]] in 1838, still stand today. In the 16th century, a college was created and in 1620, teaching was entrusted to the [[Jesuits]]. In 1670, the town was equipped with a general hospital.

Numerous religious congregations settled in the town, the [[Recollects]] (1601), the [[Poor Clares]] (1605), the [[Congregation of the Feuillants|Feuillants]] (1615), the [[Ursulines]] (1618), the [[Cistercians|Bernardines]] (1622), the [[Visitandines]] and the [[Carmelites]] (1644) as well as the [[Benedictines]] in 1650. In 1705, Sister [[Marcelline Pauper]] founded a house in Tulle for the congregation of the [[Sisters of Charity of Nevers]], to relieve the misery of the people and to teach children to read.

From the 17th century onwards, new economic activities appeared, the mills on the [[Corrèze (river)|Corrèze]] and Solane rivers being used to produce paper for example. The lace craft develops and the "poinct de Tulle" develops until its fame becomes worldwide, [[Tulle (netting)|tulle]] being frequently used for wedding dresses in particular. It was also the beginning of the arms industry in Tulle with the establishment of a factory in 1691 resulting from the collaboration between the master harquebusier Pauphile and the financier Fénis de Lacombe. The firearms factory will become a royal factory in 1777.

The mutilations of the [[Tulle Cathedral|cathedral]] and the abbey buildings were very significant during the [[French Revolution]] because, converted into a weapons factory, all the fittings, including the irons supporting the dome, were torn off for recovery, causing the collapse of the dome, the chevet, the transept and the north gallery of the cloister in 1796. The Episcopal Palace, two parish churches and several chapels in the suburbs were destroyed during the Revolution. The church was reopened for worship in 1803 but did not regain its title of cathedral until 1823, while the dome was never rebuilt, the nave being simply closed and the open space used for a promenade along the [[Corrèze (river)|Corrèze]] on the current Quai Edmond-Perrier. 

===Contemporary era===

==== From the 19th century to World War II ====
{{unreferencedsect|date=September 2025}}
[[File:Gare de Tulle.JPG|thumb|Tulle railway station]]

During the 19th century, the physiognomy of Tulle changed a lot. A railway station opened in Souilhac district in 1871 and the town was then connected to the national railway network via [[Brive-la-Gaillarde]]. At the same time, new industries were created, notably the [[firearms]] factory. In 1886, the latter was nationalized and settled in the new district of Souilhac, along the Céronne, a river that would provide it with electricity with the construction of a [[hydroelectric power]] station in 1888. 

From 1917 onwards, trains passing on the nearby tracks would supply the thermal power station with [[coal]] at the level of the present Socio-Cultural Centre. Up to 5,000 employees worked at the "Manu'" as it was then known. The Manu' was the economic lung of the city and influenced the social composition of the Tullist population, which was strongly coloured by the workers.

The urban junction between the working-class district of Souilhac and the historic district of the cathedral is made by the urbanization of the current avenue Victor-Hugo. As in many other French cities inspired by the [[Haussmann's renovation of Paris|renovations of Baron Haussmann in Paris]], the end of the 19th century saw the city open up, notably with the construction of the current Avenue du Général-de-Gaulle in the Trech district and the enlargement of the Place de la Cathédrale. At the same time, work was undertaken to limit the frequent floods and to clean up the city by burying the Solane river, which until then had flowed at the foot of the buildings. 

The city also acquired new public buildings in its role as the prefecture and main city of the department, such as the construction of the Town Hall (former bishopric), the Prefecture, the Hôtel Marbot (former Grand Séminaire), the Law Courts, the Post Office, the Halle-Gymnase (now the Latreille Hall) and the Lycée Edmond-Perrier, many of which were built in an Art Nouveau style. Completed in 1899, the Theatre is a monument of Anatole de Baudot, the first building of its kind in the world in reinforced cement. From the beginning of the 20th century, the town began to spread out on the very steep slopes of the valley and urbanisation spread.

Tulle became a garrison town from 1841, when an infantry regiment settled in the former barracks located on the Champ-de-Mars, on the current site of the Cité administrative, along the [[Corrèze (river)|Corrèze]].

From 1917 to 1922, Tulle was in the spotlight of the French press because of a news item. Over 100 anonymous letters were sent, denouncing all the secrets of the inhabitants of the city. The sender was actually Angele Laval, a spurned and insane woman. This fact inspired [[Henri-Georges Clouzot|Clouzot]] for his film ''[[Le Corbeau]]'' and [[Cocteau]] for his play ''La Machine à écrire''.

==== World War II ====
{{Main|Tulle massacre}}

During the Second World War, the [[2nd SS Division Das Reich]] division of the [[Waffen SS]] perpetrated a reprisal [[Wiktionary:massacre|massacre]] of civilians in Tulle, following the killing and maiming of some 40 German soldiers in Tulle on 8 June 1944 by the [[Maquis (World War II)|Maquis]] resistance movement.

On 9 June 1944 a large number of male civilians were rounded up by the SS. Of these, 97 were randomly selected and then hanged from lamp posts and balconies in the town. Another 321 captives were sent to forced labour camps in Germany where 101 died. In total, the actions of the Wehrmacht, the Waffen-SS, and the SD claimed the lives of 213 civilian residents of Tulle.

==== Since the 1960s ====
[[File:La Corrèze à Tulle.JPG|thumb|View of the city center from the Escurol bridge]]

In the last stages of the [[Algerian War]] and its aftermath, four military officers involved in instigating a [[Algiers putsch of 1961|failed coup]] aimed at deposing [[Charles de Gaulle|President de Gaulle]] were held in the prison at Tulle. De Gaulle referred at the time to "those idiotic generals playing ball in Tulle Prison".<ref>[[Jean Lacouture|Lacouture, Jean]].  ''De Gaulle: The Ruler 1945–1970''. [[Alan Sheridan]] trans. New York: W. W. Norton, 1991. {{ISBN|0-393-03084-9}} p. 329</ref> The four were [[Raoul Salan]], [[Edmond Jouhaud]], [[Maurice Challe]] and [[André Zeller]].   The last of them to be released was Salan, amnestied on 15 June 1968 in the wake of [[May 1968 in France|"The Events"]] of May 1968.

In 1972, the annex of the Army Technical Teaching School (EETAT) was created in Tulle to train electromechanical engineers, accountants and mechanics. In 1977, an annex of the National Technical School of the Army (ENTSOA) was opened and closed in 1984. It was replaced in 1983 by the [[Gendarmerie]] School of Tulle, located in the barracks of La Bachellerie, which today accommodates around 1,100 gendarme students.

The 1973 film ''[[The Day of the Jackal (film)|The Day of the Jackal]]'', a political thriller directed by [[Fred Zinnemann]] and starring [[Edward Fox (actor)|Edward Fox]] and [[Michael Lonsdale]], is partly set and partly filmed in the Tulle area. Based on [[Frederick Forsyth]]'s 1971 novel ''The Day of the Jackal'', the film is about a professional assassin known only as the "Jackal", who is hired to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle in the summer of 1963 and uses the Tulle area and some of its fictional residents as cover for the preparations for the assassination attempt.

Today, Tulle, prefecture of [[Corrèze]] and bishopric, is no longer the seat of a weapons factory. Until the 1980s, [[Manufacture Nationale d'Armes de Tulle|MAT]] had been the largest employer in [[Limousin]], but the state-owned company Giat Industries, now [[Nexter Systems|Nexter]], has carried out numerous restructurings over the last few decades, reducing the historic Tulle production site to 120 employees. A weapons museum was created in 1979 by the staff of the factory.

Since 1973, the town centre has had a tower, the ''Cité administrative'' (Administrative City Tower), which has 22 levels and is 86 m high on the river side.

In 1996, Tulle hosted the finish of a stage of the [[1996 Tour de France|Tour de France]] starting from [[Super Besse|Super-Besse]] ([[Puy-de-Dôme]]).

On [[2012 French presidential election|6 May 2012]], the newly elected president, [[François Hollande]], mayor of Tulle between 2001 and 2008, gave his first speech as [[President of France|President of the French Republic]] on the Cathedral Square, which was attended by several thousand people, including some 400 French and foreign journalists and several helicopters.

== Geography ==
[[File:Tulle02.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Corrèze (river)|Corrèze]] river in Tulle]]

Tulle is the third largest town in [[Limousin]], behind [[Limoges]] and [[Brive-la-Gaillarde]]. It is situated in a very deep part of the river [[Corrèze (river)|Corrèze]] valley, at its confluence with several of its tributaries, the Solane and the Céronne on the right bank, and the Saint-Bonnette and the Montane on the left bank. It stretches along a very narrow strip several kilometres long from the northeast to the southwest.

=== Climate ===
Tulle has an [[oceanic climate]] under the [[Köppen climate classification|Köppen classification]] (''Cfb''). Rainfall is high year-round and temperature differences between seasons are larger than in coastal areas.

{{Weather box|width=auto
|metric first=y
|single line=y 
|collapsed = Y
|location =  Tulle (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1957–present)
|Jan record high C = 20.5
|Feb record high C = 25.0
|Mar record high C = 27.0
|Apr record high C = 30.1
|May record high C = 34.0
|Jun record high C = 39.7
|Jul record high C = 40.8
|Aug record high C = 40.5
|Sep record high C = 36.7
|Oct record high C = 31.4
|Nov record high C = 25.8
|Dec record high C = 20.2
|Jan record low C = -21.0
|Feb record low C = -16.1
|Mar record low C = -13.0
|Apr record low C = -7.0
|May record low C = -2.4
|Jun record low C = -0.5
|Jul record low C = 4.7
|Aug record low C = 2.0
|Sep record low C = 0.0
|Oct record low C = -5.4
|Nov record low C = -10.0
|Dec record low C = -15.5
|Jan high C = 8.7
|Feb high C = 10.4
|Mar high C = 14.7
|Apr high C = 17.5
|May high C = 21.4
|Jun high C = 25.0
|Jul high C = 27.2
|Aug high C = 27.3
|Sep high C = 23.2
|Oct high C = 18.5
|Nov high C = 12.4
|Dec high C = 9.2
| year high C = 18.0
|Jan mean C = 4.6
|Feb mean C = 5.2
|Mar mean C = 8.6
|Apr mean C = 11.2
|May mean C = 14.8
|Jun mean C = 18.3
|Jul mean C = 20.2
|Aug mean C = 20.2
|Sep mean C = 16.4
|Oct mean C = 12.9
|Nov mean C = 7.9
|Dec mean C = 5.0
| year mean C = 12.1
|Jan low C = 0.5
|Feb low C = 0.1
|Mar low C = 2.5
|Apr low C = 4.9
|May low C = 8.3
|Jun low C = 11.6
|Jul low C = 13.2
|Aug low C = 13.0
|Sep low C = 9.6
|Oct low C = 7.3
|Nov low C = 3.3
|Dec low C = 0.9
| year low C = 6.3
|precipitation colour = green
|Jan precipitation mm = 117.5 
|Feb precipitation mm = 95.7
|Mar precipitation mm = 97.0
|Apr precipitation mm = 111.2
|May precipitation mm = 101.4
|Jun precipitation mm = 93.1
|Jul precipitation mm = 77.4
|Aug precipitation mm = 78.1
|Sep precipitation mm = 92.2
|Oct precipitation mm = 110.3
|Nov precipitation mm = 130.5
|Dec precipitation mm = 131.7
|year precipitation mm = 1236.1
|unit precipitation days = 1.0 mm
| Jan precipitation days = 13.8
| Feb precipitation days = 11.0
| Mar precipitation days = 11.7
| Apr precipitation days = 12.5
| May precipitation days = 11.9
| Jun precipitation days = 9.7
| Jul precipitation days = 8.6
| Aug precipitation days = 8.9
| Sep precipitation days = 9.5
| Oct precipitation days = 12.1
| Nov precipitation days = 13.6
| Dec precipitation days = 13.8
| year precipitation days =137.1
|source 1 = Meteociel<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://www.meteociel.fr/obs/clim/normales_records.php?code=19272001
|title=Normales et records pour Tulle (19)
|publisher=Meteociel
|access-date=14 December 2024}}</ref>}}

==Transport==
Tulle is located at the crossroads of several routes:

* [[Bordeaux]] - [[Clermont-Ferrand]] - [[Lyon]] axis: RD 1089 and the [[A89 autoroute|A89 motorway]];
* [[Uzerche]] - [[Sévérac-le-Château]] axis: link between the [[A20 autoroute|A20]] and the [[A75 autoroute|A75]] via Tulle, [[Argentat-sur-Dordogne]], [[Aurillac]], [[Montsalvy]], [[Espalion]] and [[Laissac]]. This corresponds to taking the RD 1120 then the departmental roads 920 and 28 and finally the RN 88.

[[Tulle station]] has rail connections to Brive-la-Gaillarde, Ussel and Bordeaux. Tulle is the meeting point between the South-West of France and the [[Massif Central]]. It is the former capital of Bas-Limousin, whose boundaries correspond approximately to the current department of [[Corrèze]].

==Economy==
Tulle's role as a centre for [[Lace|lace making]] is highlighted by an "international lace festival" held each August.{{cn|date=September 2025}} The town is also home to the Maugein [[accordion]] factory, which once employed 200, though this figure is now much reduced.  Near to this there was, until recently, a significant armaments manufacturing business, but its site is now (2011) marked only by an armaments museum.{{cn|date=September 2025}}

Located in another part of town is a car parts plant owned by the American [[BorgWarner|Borg-Warner]] company,<ref>[http://www.metalcorreze.com/entreprise.php?code=BWA Voir sur le site ''metalcorreze.com''] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116170836/http://www.metalcorreze.com/entreprise.php?code=BWA |date=16 January 2013}}.</ref> and employing approximately 300 people.

==Government==
* Tulle is the seat of the [[general councils of France|general council]] of the [[Corrèze]]
* Tulle is the seat of the [[agglomeration community]] Tulle Agglo
* Tulle is the seat of the [[canton of Tulle]], which consists of the commune of Tulle
* Tulle is the prefecture of the [[Corrèze]] department

===Mayors===
{{Main|List of mayors of Tulle}}
Mayors of Tulle since 1949 were:
* Jean Massoulier (1949–1959) for the [[Radical Party (France)|Radicals]]
* Jean Montalat (1959–1971) for the [[SFIO]]
* Georges Mouly (1971–1977) for the [[Rally for the Republic|RPR]]
* Jean Combasteil (1977–1995) for the [[French Communist Party|PCF]]
* Raymond-Max Aubert (1995–2001) for the [[Rassemblement pour la République|RPR]]
* [[François Hollande]] (2001–2008) for the [[Parti socialiste (France)|PS]] (elected President of the Republic in 2012)
* [[Bernard Combes]] (2008–   ) for the [[Parti socialiste (France)|PS]]

===Politics===
Tulle's MP in the [[National Assembly of France]] for nearly 15 years was the Socialist [[François Hollande]], who was elected President of the Republic in 2012. Hollande also served as mayor of the town.

==Population==
{{Historical populations
| align = none
| cols = 2
| percentages = pagr
| source = EHESS<ref name=ehess>{{Cassini-Ehess|38367|Tulle}}</ref> and INSEE<ref name=pophist>[https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/4515315?geo=COM-19272#ancre-POP_T1 Population en historique depuis 1968] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220924141522/https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/4515315?geo=COM-19272#ancre-POP_T1 |date=24 September 2022 }}, INSEE</ref>
| graph-pos = bottom
|1793 |9662
|1800 |9362
|1806 |9153
|1821 |8097
|1831 |8689
|1836 |9700
|1841 |9669
|1846 |10769
|1851 |11895
|1856 |11653
|1861 |12410
|1866 |12606
|1872 |13680
|1876 |15342
|1881 |16196
|1886 |16277
|1891 |18964
|1896 |17374
|1901 |17412
|1906 |17245
|1911 |15942
|1921 |13732
|1926 |14349
|1931 |15021
|1936 |15617
|1946 |18202
|1954 |19372
|1962 |19084
|1968 |20016
|1975 |20100
|1982 |18880
|1990 |17164
|1999 |15553
|2007 |15647
|2012 |14336
|2017 |14836
}}

== Education ==
* [[Normal school]] of teachers
* ISMIB (Higher Institute of Management of Woodworking Industries)
* [[Institut universitaire de technologie|IUT]] of [[Nouvelle-Aquitaine]]: departments Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) and Industrial Engineering and Maintenance (GIM)
* [[Lycée Edmond Perrier]]: establishment of secondary and higher education, technologic and general (1100 pupils). The school offers a Scientific [[CPGE]] (Preparatory classes schools).
* Institute of Nursing Education
* [[Gendarmerie]] training school
* CFA (Training center for apprentices) of the ''13 vents''

== Culture ==
[[File:Façade du théâtre des 7 collines de Tulle.JPG|thumb|Municipal [[Théâtre des Sept Collines]]]]

===Arts and festivals===
* Festival ''Nuits de Nacre'' (accordion music) since 1984 with a strong notoriety
* Festival ''O'les choeurs'' (music, theater and exhibitions) since 1997
* Festival ''Du bleu en hiver'' (jazz, rock and blues music)
* International festival of lace
* Photographic Art Festival

===Museums===
* Museum of the Resistance and Deportation
* Museum of Weapons
* Museum of the Accordion

==Twin towns==
{{unreferencedsect|date=September 2025}}
Tulle is twinned with:
* [[Schorndorf]], Germany
* [[Errenteria]], Spain
* [[Bury, Greater Manchester|Bury]], England, United Kingdom
* [[Lousada]], Portugal
* [[Smolensk]], Russia
* [[Dueville]], Italy

==Notable people==
[[File:Francois_Hollande_2015.jpeg|thumb|[[François Hollande]]]]
[[File:MarcelleTinayreDornac.jpg|thumb|[[Marcelle Tinayre]]]]

Tulle is the birthplace of:
* [[Laurent Koscielny]] (b. 1985), football player  
* [[Éric Rohmer]] (1920–2010), film director
* [[Marcelle Tinayre]] (1870–1948), woman of letters
* [[Alphonse Rebière]] (1842–1900), science writer
* [[Edmond Perrier]] (1844–1921), zoologist and director of the [[Muséum national d'histoire naturelle|National Museum of Natural History]]
* [[Étienne Baluze]] (1630–1718), scholar
* [[Jean-François Melon]] (1675–1738), economist
* [[Jacques Brival]] (1751–1820), French Revolutionary
* [[Thomas Domingo]] (b. 1985), rugby player
* [[Léon Eyrolles]] (1861–1945), politician and entrepreneur
* [[Charles Silvestre]] (1889–1948)), writer, winner of the [[Prix Femina]] in 1926 
* [[Philippe Manoury]] (b. 1952), composer
* [[Marie-Anne Montchamp]] (b. 1957), Secretary of State for Solidarities and Social Cohesion
* [[Robert Nivelle]] (1856–1924), Commander-in-Chief of the French army (1916–1917)

The following people have resided in Tulle:
* [[François Hollande]] (b. 1954), the former President of [[France]], who was elected during the [[2012 French presidential election]] and who previously served as Mayor of Tulle.
* [[Benoît Mandelbrot]] (1924–2010), discoverer of [[fractals]]

==See also==
* [[Tulle Cathedral]]
* [[Communes of the Corrèze department]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
*[http://www.ville-tulle.fr/ Official website] {{in lang|fr}}
* Pictures of Tulle Cathedral: [http://site.voila.fr/pointer/hopita27.jpg], [http://www.limousin.culture.gouv.fr/images/prospermerimee/tulleabbatialeinterieur.jpg]

{{Préfectures of départements of France}}
{{Corrèze communes}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Communes of Corrèze]]
[[Category:Prefectures in France]]
[[Category:Limousin]]
[[Category:Sites of Nazi war crimes in France]]