History and Civilization
Grenoble has been standing before the Isere Alps for a long time. They didn’t always call it Grenoble and it wasn’t a winter sports resort since its foundation; nonetheless, the wave upon wave of historical events and changes which have been breaking on its walls for centuries fermented in a fine vintage which can be tasted by tourists in the Old Town of Grenoble and in its museums. Here is a short summary of this city’s biography:
- The city has been known under different names through time: Cularo, when the Allobroges built strong walls around the small town in the 3rd century; Gratianopolis, after 380 when the Emperor Gratian visited the city and had the walls improved.
- The Benedictines and Augustinians founded at an early date numerous priories in the diocese, that of Vizille dating from 994, but during St. Hugh’s administration, monastic life attained a fuller development. The chapter-abbey of Saint-Martin de Miséré, whence originated many Augustinian priories, and the school of the priory of Villard Benoît at Pontcharra, were important during twelfth and thirteenth centuries. But the monastic foundation of Dauphiné, contemporaneous with St. Hugh’s regime, was that of the Carthusians under St. Bruno of Cologne in 1084. The Frères du Saint-Esprit, who during the Middle Ages were scattered through the Diocese of Grenoble, did much to inculcate among the people habits of mutual assistance.
- After the collapse of the Roman Empire the city was part of the first Burgundian kingdom, until it was taken by Clotaire I, king of the Franks and a son of Clovis. Later on, it passed into the possession of the Carolingian kings, then the second Burgundian kingdom of Arles and finally became a possession of the counts of Vienne, whose title, "Dauphin", gave the region its traditional name: Dauphiné. 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 traveling guillotines, going from village to village to exact vengeance following unfounded accusations. Place de la Bastille (Place Hubert Dubedout now) was historically Place de la Guillotine.
- The two sojourns at Grenoble in 1598 and 1600 respectively by Cotton, the Jesuit, later confessor to Henry IV of France, were prolific of some notable conversions from Protestantism; in memory of this the Constable de Lesdiguières, himself a convert in 1622, favored the founding at Grenoble of a celebrated Jesuit house. In 1651 a college was established in connection with the residence, and here Vaucanson, the well-known scientist, studied. In 1700 the institution included theological courses in its curriculum.
- From the first half of the thirteenth century the French branch of the Waldenses had its chief seat in Dauphiné, from which country came Guillaume Farel, the most captivating preacher of the French Reformation. Pierre de Sébiville, an apostate Franciscan friar, introduced Protestantism into Grenoble in 1522. The diocese was sorely tried by the wars of religion, especially in 1562, when the cruel Baron des Andrets acted as the Prince de Condé’s lieutenant-general in Dauphiné.
- Pope Pius VI, when taken a prisoner to France, spent two days at Grenoble in 1799. Pius VII, in turn was kept in close confinement in the prefecture of Grenoble from 21 July until 2 August, 1808, Bishop Simon not being permitted even to visit him.
- The principal places of pilgrimage in the present Diocese of Grenoble are: Notre-Dame de Parménie, near Rivers, re-established in the seventeenth century at the instance of a shepherdess; Notre-Dame de l’Osier, at Vinay, which dates from 1649, and Our Lady of La Salette, which owes its origin to the apparition of the Virgin, 19 September, 1846, to Maximin Giraud and Mélanie Calvat, the devotion to Notre-Dame de la Salette being authorized by Bishop Bruillard, 1 May, 1852.
- Before the enforcement of the law of 1901 there were in the Diocese of Grenoble Assumptionists, Olivétans, Capuchins, Regular Canons of the Immaculate Conception, Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Fathers of Holy Ghost and the Holy Heart of Mary, Brothers of the Cross of Jesus, Brothers of the Holy Family, Brothers of the Christian Schools and Brothers of the Sacred Heart. The diocesan congregations of women were: the Sisters of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, devoted to hospital work and teaching, and founded by Cathiard, who, after having been an officer under Napoleon, died Archpriest of Pont de Beauvoisin; the Sisters of Providence, founded in 1841, devoted to hospital duty and teaching (mother-house at St. Marcellin), and the Sisters of Our Lady of the Cross, likewise devoted to hospital and educational work, founded in 1832 (mother-house at Murinais).
- Tensions arose 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.