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Tournus

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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a town of east-central France, in the department of Saone-et-Loire, on the right bank of the Saone, 20 m. N. by E. of Macon on the Paris-Lyons railway. Pop. (5906), 3787. The church of St Philibert (early 11th century) once belonging to the Benedictine abbey of Tournus, suppressed in 1785, is in the Burgundian Romanesque style. The façade lacks one of the two flanking towers originally designed for it. The nave is roofed with barrel vaulting, supported on tall cylindrical columns. The choir beneath which is a crypt of the 1 rth century has a deambulatory and square chapels. In the Place de l'Hotel de Ville stands a statue of J. B. Greuze, born in the town in 1725. There are vineyards in the surrounding district and the town and its port have considerable commerce in wine and in stone from the neighbouring quarries. Chairmaking is an important industry.