Découvrir Toul

The medieval town center

Toul, a town of history

A town of Heritage and Art, the town has a historical center where historic and modern buildings are found together.
The visitor walking through the streets, walks through the centuries, from the Middle Ages into modern times. Profoundly marked by wars, and especially by the Second World War and its destructions, the town has kept beautiful old houses.

A religious town, Toul has preserved the buildings : the Saint Etienne Cathedral, the Saint Gengoult Collegial, the former Maison Dieu (a ward for the ill people, in the actual Art and History Museum) but as well its canon’s houses (around the cathedral) and former convents (Franciscan, Dominican friars) and its former bishop’s palace (actually the city council).

Fortified during the Gallo-Roman period and several times after that, the town has kept its medieval center well protected and its alleys kept their original traces.
Everywhere beautiful houses are still visible with beautiful ornamentation around the doors and windows, inviting the visitor to stroll while lifting his eyes. Walk through these streets with its suggestive names inherited from the Middle Ages…

From the town center, when you take the rue de la Petite Boucherie, the butcher’s street, (a house decorated with sculpted heads at the end), you arrive in the Place Croix de Füe where you’ll find the House of the Apothecary dated back to the 16th century.

From here you can walk into the Tanners street, the College street and the rue du Murot (where the old town wall used to be), their names tell us about the former trades and functions. And, inevitably, the rue de la Monnaie, well-known for its brothels…..

Not to be missed : the area around the Place Croix en Bourg with its fountain offered by Louis Curel : the House of the Knights of Malta, the Mansion of the Pimodan family and the former Hospital of the Holy Spirit (rue Général Gengoult), the facades of the former Café de la Comédie and the former theater (rue Gambetta) and further down the rue Thiers, the town gate, la Porte de France, from the 19th cent.

Proud of its history and rich heritage, Toul invites you to come and discover and to surprise you. By its buildings, its streets but as well in its museum that traces back the story of Toul since its origins.