('') at the 1999 census was 514,559 inhabitants and 552,547 inhabitants at the 2007 estimate. Among the numerous communes included are the city's largest suburbs,
Saint-Martin-d'Hères ,
Échirolles , and
Fontaine , each with a population exceeding 20,000 inhabitants.
Grenoble is surrounded by mountains: to the north are the
Chartreuse , to the west are the
Vercors , and to the east are the
Belledonne Range . As such, it is often visited by the
Tour De France and has been called the "capital of the Alps".
The city is mainly built on the alluvial plain of the River Isere at an altitude of around 214 meters. Mountain sports are an important tourist draw for the city. Twenty ski stations surround the city, the nearest being
Le Sappey-en-Chartreuse , which is about 15 minutes' drive away.
Because the city sits in a valley bottom, it has serious issues of air quality due to the mountains trapping the pollution from a large number of cars, garbage burning plants, chemical plants, paper mills and even nuclear test labs. Radiation detectors can be observed at regular intervals along the Drac river. The trash burning plant in
Meylan , one of the city's most prosperous suburbs, is currently being investigated for polluting the environment with
Dioxin . A similar plant in Savoie was found to have been doing the same.
Historically both Grenoble and the surrounding areas were the site of mining and heavy industry. Abandoned mills and factories can be found in small villages like La Mure (carbon mine).
See Also: Tramway de Grenoble
Grenoble can be accessed by plane from
Saint-Exupéry International Airport near
Lyon ,
Geneva Cointrin International Airport , or
Grenoble-Isère Airport . Within Grenoble there is a comprehensive bus and tram service, run by
Semitag . It operates 26 bus lines and 3 tram lines, serving all of greater Grenoble.
The city center is famous for its complex system of one-way streets, the grid-lock of which adds to the local air pollution. The motorway system into the city is particularly poorly designed, with backups many miles long occurring frequently. In summer, pollution alerts further increase congestion by reducing speed limits.
The city has been known under different names through time:
After the collapse of the ''. Grenoble was the capital of the Dauphiné, a
Province Of France since 1349, when the last Dauphin of Vienne sold the region to France, on condition that the heir to the French crown use the title of ''
Dauphin ''.
The city gained some notoriety in 1788 when the townspeople assaulted troops of Louis XVI in the "
Day Of The Tiles ".
Modern history has been no less colorful with the sacking of the local churches from 1789 onwards, even to the extent of travelling guillotines, going from village to village to exact vengeace following unfounded accusations. Place de la Bastille was historically Place de la Guillotine.
These tensions arose again during the periods of Italian and German occupation in World War II. Many resistance fighters were betrayed in Grenoble. The old Gestapo HQ is now a well-known hotel.
The Bastille, an ancient series of fortifications, sits on the mountainside overlooking Grenoble, and is visible from many points in the city. The Bastille is one of Grenoble's most visited tourist attractions, and is a good vantage point for viewing the town below and the surrounding mountains.
Although the Bastille was begun in the
Middle Ages , later years saw extensive additions including a semi-underground defense network. The Bastille has been credited as the most extensive example of 19th century fortifications in all of France, and held an important strategic point on the
Alpine frontier.
Since 1934, the Bastille has been the destination of what locals call a "téléphérique", a system of egg-shaped
Cable Cars ("Les Bulles") that provide riders with an excellent view over the
Isère River . For those who opt for the "Bulles", a round trip costs €5.95. Alternatively, many locals do their "footing" or morning jogs up the mountain.
The presence of a large international community through both foreign students and foreign researchers has prompted the creation of an international school more than a decade ago. The ,
Spanish ,
Italian and
English , but
Portuguese and an
Arabic section have also been added. It is now one of France's best secondary education centres.
By three Bulls of
12 May ,
27 May , and
30 September ,
1339 the
University Of Grenoble was founded by
Pope Benedict XII .
On
25 July ,
1339 , the Dauphin
Humbert II (the counts of Dauphiné bore the title of
Dauphin ) drew up a charter of the privileges granted to the students at Grenoble, promulgated measures to attract them, and stipulated that the university should give instruction in
Civil and
Canon Law , medicine, and the arts.
A curious ordinance issued
10 May ,
1340 by Humbert II commanded the destruction of all the forges in the vicinity of Grenoble lest they should produce an irreparable famine of wood and charcoal. Humbert may have wished that life should be frugal where university was established. Finally on
1 August ,
1340 , he declared that the superior court of justice of Dauphiné (conseil delphinal), which he removed from Saint-Marcellin to Grenoble, should be composed of seven counsellors, four whom might be chosen from among the professors at Grenoble. Humbert's projects do not appear to have been completely realized. The university lacked resources, indeed arts and medicine were not taught, and even the chairs of law seem scarcely to have survived the reign of Humbert II. At all events, when Louis XI created the
University Of Valence in 1452, he declared that no institution of the kind existed at that time in Dauphiné.
This first attempt at a university had foundered, but it was re-established on sound footing in 1542 by Francois de Bourbon, Count of Saint-Pol, great-uncle of
Henry IV Of France , and the royal governor of the Dauphiné province. The Italian jurist Gribaldi, the Portuguese jurist Govea, and the French jurist Pierre Lorioz, called Petrus Orioli (Pierre de Loriol)of a family originally of Pernes Les Fontaines, attracted many students thither, but the orthodoxy of these professors was suspected. This was one of the reasons which, in April, 1565, led
Charles IX Of France to unite the University of Grenoble to that of Valence, for which in 1567 Bishop Montluc, well known as a diplomat and powerful at court, was able to obtain the noted jurist
Cujas . The citizens of Grenoble protested and sent delegates to Paris, but the edict of union between the universities was strengthened by the circumstance that at the very time when Charles IX published his edict, Govea and Loriol were compelled to institute a suite against the town of Grenoble in order to secure the payment of their arrears of salary.
Equally ineffectual were the efforts for the renewal of the university frequently made by the town in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Napoleon I, on 1 November, 1805, re-established the faculty of law of Grenoble. Since 1896 the different faculties of Grenoble form the University of Grenoble.
It is worth mentioning that under the current system there is little filtering of University entrance. Consequently, it has been pointed out as one of the causes of the enormous drop out rates in the first and second years. The schools where filtering is applied are called
Grandes Écoles , the graduates of which retain most of the top positions in French Society.
Grenoble is now a major scientific center, especially in the fields of '' (UJF) is one of the leading
French scientific universities while ''
Grenoble Institute Of Technology '' (INPG) trains each year more than 1,000 engineers in high-tech areas. In fact, many fundamental and applied scientific research laboratories are conjointly managed by Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble Institute of Technology and the French ''
National Center For Scientific Research '' (CNRS). Numerous other scientific laboratories are managed solely or in collaboration by CNRS and the French ''
National Institute For Research In Computer Science And Control '' (INRIA).
In or near the city also include the
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), the
Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) and one of the
Commissariat à L'Énergie Atomique (CEA) main research facility.
The recent development of
Minatec , a centre for innovation in micro & nanotechnology only increases the position of Grenoble as one of the European scientific centers.
Most recently, the City hosted the Science On Stage 2 Event for delegations of European science teachers from across Europe. This was a major event with many significant speakers and politicians there to discuss and develop ideas for enhancing the quality of science teaching across Europe, along with hundreds of Europes most innovative science teachers. It was a very colourful event, with lots of noise, colour and excitement as teachers demonstrated the kind of stuff you wished your science teachers did when you were at school! More information about this event can be found at:
"http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Science_on_Stage/index.html" and a UK site with teaching resources as well: "http://www.scienceonstage2.co.uk/".
An
IEP is located here, the ''
Institut D'études Politiques De Grenoble '', as well as an internationally ranked business school, the ''
Grenoble École De Management '' (Grenoble-EM).
- Grenoble is famous for its Walnut s, for which it enjoys an ''appelation'' Of Controlled Origin .
- The town is famous for manufacturing of gloves, for which an innovative technique was introduced in XIX century.
- The town hosts an important Comics publisher, Glénat .
- Grenoble hosted the 1968 Winter Olympics and is preparing to bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics .
- Grenoble is famous for many nearby ski resorts nestled in the surrounding mountains, and its Italian quarter, the "Quartier Saint Laurent".
- It is the home of a Rugby Union team FC Grenoble , a football team Grenoble Foot 38 , and an ice hockey team Brûleurs De Loups .
- Grenoble has many restaurants from cheap to expensive of almost every cuisine, but particularly common are Italian and Asian establishments.
- Les Filles De Grenoble (1981) by Joël Le Moigné deals with the city's prostitution underworld
- by Michel Régnier deals with the creation of a utopian city, today's poster child of urban segregation and isolation
Grenoble was the birthplace of:
- Abel Servien (1593–1659), Diplomat
- Hugues De Lionne (1611–1671), statesman
- Claudine Alexandrine Guérin De Tencin (1681–1749), Courtesan and Author
- Jacques De Vaucanson (1709–1782), inventor of the automated loom and the digesting duck.
- Étienne Bonnot De Condillac (1715–1780), writer of the Enlightenment
- Jean Joseph Mounier (1758–1806), Politician
- Antoine Barnave (1761–1793), orator of the French Revolution
- Casimir Pierre Perier (1777–1832), statesman
- Stendhal (1783–1842), author
- Henri Fantin-Latour (1836–1904), painter
- Lionel Terray (born 1921), Climber
- Johnny Servoz-Gavin (born 1942), Motor Racing driver
- Michel Lotito (born 1950), entertainer
- Maurice Dantec (born 1959), Science Fiction a
- Miss Kittin , (real name Caroline Hervé, born 1973), Electronica Vocalist
- Anaïs Croze , (born 1976), singer
- Seyhan Kurt (born 1979) poet,author
- Julien Brellier , born 1982, footballer
- Cristobal Huet , National Hockey League goaltender for the Los Angeles Kings and Montreal Canadiens
- Julien Robert , Biathlete
- Catania , Italy , since 1961
- Innsbruck , Austria , since 1963
- Essen , Germany , since 1976
- Halle , Germany , since 1976
- Chişinău , Moldova , since 1977
- Oxford , United Kingdom , since 1977
- Rehovoth , Israel , since 1977
- Phoenix , United States , since 1990
- Pécs , Hungary , since 1992
- Kaunas , Lithuania , since 1997
- Sfax , Tunisia , since 1998
- Constantine , Algeria , since 1999
- Corato , Italy, since 2002
