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Loudun
Loudun
Commune
	Porte du Martray in Loudun
	Coat of arms
	Location of Loudun
	Loudun Loudun
	Coordinates: 47°00′38″N 0°05′04″E / 47.0106°N 0.0844°E
Country	France
Region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department	Vienne
Arrondissement	Châtellerault
Canton	Loudun
Intercommunality	Pays Loudunais
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Joël Dazas
Area 1	43.77 km2 (16.90 sq mi)
Population (2021)	6,743
• Density	150/km2 (400/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	86137 /86200
Elevation	47–120 m (154–394 ft) ; (avg. 90 m or 300 ft)
Website	www.ville-loudun.fr
	1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Loudun (/luːˈdʌn/; French pronunciation: [lu.dœ̃]; Poitevin: Loudin) is a commune in the Vienne department and the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, western France.

It is located 30 km (19 mi) south of the town of Chinon and 25 km to the east of the town Thouars. The area south of Loudun is the place of origin of a significant portion of the Acadians, one of the early founding people of New France in Canada.^[3]

Demographics

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1968	7,094	—
1975	8,035	+1.80%
1982	8,120	+0.15%
1990	7,854	−0.42%
1999	7,704	−0.21%
2007	7,173	−0.89%
2012	6,819	−1.01%
2017	6,747	−0.21%
Source: INSEE^[4]

Sights

Loudun, an ancient town, contains numerous old streets, buildings and monuments of which five are Government-listed monuments. It is also the location of a vicus type archaeological site.

History

The Treaty of Loudun, negotiated and signed in Loudun on May 3, 1616, temporarily resolved the power struggle for control of the French government between the Prince of Condé (next in line for Louis XIII's throne) and queen mother Marie de Medici's favorite Concino Concini, Marquis of Ancre.
Loudun was also the site of mass hysteria surrounding the supposed mass possession of Ursuline nuns by the Devil in 1634 (see Loudun possessions).

Loudun in art

Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz's 1942 (published in 1946) short story which transposes the story to Poland
Eyvind Johnson's 1949 novel Drömmar om rosor och eld was based on the Loudun possessions.^[5]
Aldous Huxley's 1952 non-fiction novel The Devils of Loudun was also based on the Loudun possessions.
John Whiting's 1961 theatre play The Devils, commissioned by Sir Peter Hall for the Royal Shakespeare Company, was based on Aldous Huxley's novel.
A Polish film, Mother Joan of the Angels (1961), is based on Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz short story.
Krzysztof Penderecki's 1969 opera The Devils of Loudun (Die Teufel von Loudun), which premiered at the Hamburg State Opera, was based on Huxley's novel and Whiting's play.^[6]
Ken Russell's 1971 film The Devils was based on Huxley's novel and Whiting's play.

Notable people

Loudun is the birthplace of:

Jean Salmon Macrin (1490–1557), Neo-Latin poet
Théophraste Renaudot (1586–1653), medical practitioner, inventor of the French written press, journalist, and philanthropist
Ismaël Bullialdus (1604–1694), astronomer
Jean-Charles Cornay, martyr.
Marie Besnard, accused of poisoning in the 1950s in what was a very mediatized trial; her story was the subject of a successful TV movie and several books
René Monory, mayor of Loudun, senator of Vienne, president of the French Senate, Minister of Education, president of the Vienne General Council, and founder of the Futuroscope Park of Poitiers
Nicolas Ghesquière (born 1972), creative director of the French fashion house Balenciaga was born in 1972 in Comines, Nord-Pas-de-Calais but was always raised in Loudun where his parents own a golf course.

Loudun is the place of death of:

Urbain Grandier (18 August 1634), French Catholic priest who was burned at the stake after being convicted of witchcraft.
André Andrejew (16 March 1967), French-Russian classic film production designer, built decor for movies produced in Germany, France, England and the US.

Twin towns

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Audun le Tiche, France
Shippagan, Canada
Leuze, Belgium
Burgos, Spain
Thibodaux, USA

References

^ "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 13 September 2022.
^ "Populations légales 2021" (in French). The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
^ Gregory M. W. Kennedy, Something of a Peasant Paradise? Comparing Rural Societies in Acadie and the Loudunais, 1604-1755 (MQUP 2014).
^ Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE
^ Örjan Lindberger (1990) Människan i tiden. Eyvind Johnsons liv och författarskap 1938-1976, Bonniers ISBN 91-0-047904-7
^ "James Wierzbicki / Krzysztof Penderecki". Archived from the original on 2006-01-01. Retrieved 2016-03-19.