TOUL, a garrison town of north-eastern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, 21 m. W. of Nancy on the Eastern railway Pop. (1906), town 9523; commune, 13,663. Toul is situated in a plain on the left bank of the Moselle, which skirts the town on the S. and S. E., while on the N. it is bordered by the Marne-Rhine canal. It is principally important as being the centre of a great entrenched camp close to the German frontier. Immediately after the Franco-German War the whole system of frontier defence was revised, and of all the new fortresses of the Meuse and Moselle Toul is perhaps the most formidable. The works were begun in 1874 by the construction of four outlying forts north, north-east and south of the town, but these soon became merely an inner line of defence. The principal defences now lie much farther out on all sides. The west front of the new line of forts occupies a long line of high ground (the watershed of the Meuse and the Moselle), the north front, about 4 m. from Toul, is in undulating country, while facing towards Nancy and forming the chord of the arc which the Moselle describes from Fontenay below to Villey-le-Sec above, is the strong east front, the outlying works of which extend far to the east (Fort Frouard and other works about Nancy) and to the south-east (Pont St Vincent). The south front extends from the Moselle at Villey-le-Sec south-westwards till it meets the southern end of the west front on the high ground overlooking the Meuse valley. The fort at Pagny on the Meuse to the south-west may be considered an outwork of this line of defence. The perimeter of the Toul defences proper is nearly 30 m., and their mean distance from the town about 6 m. Northward, along the Meuse, Toul is connected with the fortress of Verdun by the “ Meuse line ” of barrier forts, the best known of which are Gironville, Liouville and Troyon. South of Toul the country was purposely left unfortified as far as Épinal (q.v.) and this region is known as the Trouée d'Épinal.
The town itself forms an oval within a bastion ed enceinte pierced by three gateways. It has two important churches. That of St Étienne (formerly a cathedral) has a choir and transept of the 13th century; the nave and aisles are of the 14th, and the façade, the finest part of the building, of the last half of the 15th. The two western towers, which have no spires, reach a height of 246 ft. The two large lateral chapels of the nave are in the Renaissance style. The chief features of the interior are its stained glass and organ loft. South of the church there is a fine cloister of the end of the 13th century which was much damaged at the Revolution. The church of St Gengoult, which dates chiefly from the late 13th or early 14th century, has a facade of the 15th century and a cloister in the Flamboyant Gothic style of the 16th century. The hôtel-de-ville occupies a building of the 18th century, once the episcopal palace, and contains the library and museum. Toul is the seat of a sub-prefect and has a tribunal of commerce and a communal college among its public institutions. The industries include the manufacture of porcelain; trade is in wine and brandy.
Toul (Tullum) is one of the oldest towns of France; originally capital of the Leuci, in the Belgic Confederation, it acquired great importance under the Romans. It was evangelized by St Mansuy in the latter half of the 4th century, and became one of the leading sees of north-east Gaul. After being sacked successively by Goths, Burgundians, Vandals and Huns, Toul was conquered by the Franks in 450. Under the Merovingians it was governed by counts, assisted by elective officers. The bishops became sovereign counts in the 10th century, holding only of the emperor, and for a period of 300 years (13th to 16th centuries) the citizens maintained a long struggle against them. Together with Verdun and Metz the town and its domain formed the territory of the Trois-Evéchés. Toul was forced to yield for a time to the count of Vaudémont in the 12th century, and twice to the duke of Lorraine in the 15th, and was thrice devastated by the plague in the 16th century. Charles V. made a solemn entry into the town in 1544, but in the following year, at the instance of the cardinal of Lorraine, it placed itself under the perpetual protection of the kings of France. Henry II. took possession of the Trois-Evéehés in 1552, but the territory was not officially incorporated with France till 1648. Henry IV. was received in state in 1603, and in 1637 the parlement of Metz was transferred to Toul. In 1700 Vauban reconstructed the fortifications of the town. In 1790 the bishopric was suppressed and the diocese united to that of Nancy. Toul, which had then no modern defences, capitulated in 1870 after a bombardment of twelve days.
TOULON, a seaport and first-class fortress and naval station
of France, department of Var, capital of the arrondissement
of Toulon, on the Mediterranean, 42 m. E.S.E. of Marseilles.
Pop. (1886), 53,941; (1901), 101,602. The bay, which
opens to the east. has two divisions, the Grande Rade
and the Petite Rade; it is sheltered on the north and
west by high hills, closed on the south by the peninsula of
capes Sicié and Cépet, and protected on the east by a huge
breakwater, the entrance, 1300 ft. wide, being defensible by
torpedoes. A ship coming from the open sea must first
pass the forts of St Marguerite, of Cap Brun, of Lamalgue
and of St Louis to the north, and the battery of the signal
station to the south; before reaching the Petite Rade it must
further pass under the guns of the battery of Le Salut to the
east, and of the forts of Balaguier and L'Aiguillette to the west.
The Bay of La Seyne lies west of the Petite Rade, and is
defended by the forts of Six-Fours, Napoléon (formerly Fort
Caire), and Malbousquet, and the batteries of Les Arènes and
Les Gaus. To the north of Toulon rise the defensive works
of Mont Faron and Fort Rouge, to the east the forts of Artigues
and St Catherine, to the north-east the formidable fort of
Coudon, and to the south-east that of Colle Noire, respectively
dominating the highway into Italy and the valley of Hyéres
with the Bay of Carqueiranne. The town, enlarged to the
north under the Second Empire, has on that side a fine modern
quarter; but in the old town the streets are for the most part
narrow, crooked and dirty, and to their insanitary state the
cholera epidemic of 1884 was attributed. The chief buildings
are the former cathedral of St Marie Majeure (from the 5th
century Toulon was a bishop's see till 1801, when it was annexed
to that of Fréjus), the church of St Louis, the naval and military
hospital, with a natural history collection and an anatomical
museum attached, a naval school of medicine, a school of
hydrography, and large barracks. In 1883–1887 a handsome
Renaissance building was erected to accommodate the picture
gallery and the town library. The monument in commemoration
of the centenary of the French Revolution was
erected in 1890 in the Place de la Liberté, the finest in the
new town. The imports are wine, corn, wood, coal, hemp, iron,
sugar, coffee and fresh fish; the exports are salt, copper ore,
barks for tanning and oils. The principal industries, apart
from the arsenal, are shipbuilding, fishing, lace-making and
wine-growing. Toulon possesses an observatory and a
botanical garden. The interesting buildings and gardens of
the hospital of St Mandrier stand on the peninsula of Cape
Cépet, and near them is the lazaretto.
Toulon is the most important of the French dockyards, and is the headquarters of the Mediterranean fleet. The arsenal, which was created by Louis XIV.—Vauban being the engineer of the works—lies on the north side of the Petite Rade. This is approached from the Grande Rade by passages at the north and south ends of a long breakwater which extends from the direction of Le Mourillon towards the Cépet Peninsula. The water space within the moles amounts to about 150 acres, while the quays approach 4 m. in length. Outside in the Petite Rade is a splendid protected anchorage for a great fleet, the whole being commanded by many forts and batteries. There are four great basins approached from the Petite Rade—the Vielle Darse, to the east, on the side of Le Mourillon; the Darse Vauban, next te it; and the Darse de Castigneau and the Darse Missiessy, farther to the west. In the Darse Vauban are three dry docks, two of them 246 ft. long, with a depth of water on the sill of about 20 ft.; while the third is 283 ft. long, with a depth of over 24 ft. Three other dry docks are in the Darse de Castigneau, of which one is in two sections. The largest of the docks is 385 ft. long, and the depth of water on the sill in all these docks averages 30 ft. In the Darse Missiessy are
