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The unicorns on the place de la Canourgue

The unicorns | Daniel Villafruela / CC-BY-SA
Street District Fountain Place de la Canourgue

The Canourgue was the name of the house where Montpellier's canons lived in. But it's now the city's nicest square!

Here, you can see the façade of the old Belleval's house, which used to be the city hall between 1816 and 1975...

In the middle of the 17th century, they decided to raise the current square: it was the only Montpellier walk before they put up the more gorgeous Peyrou's walk.

In the 18th century, the square had to be extended, in order to put a statue of king Louis XIV. But in 1716, this statue moved in the Peyrou square...

So in the Canourgue square, they put the Unicorns' fountain, completed by sculptor Foumet: it represents Charles-Eugène-Gabriel de Castries, a man who won the battle of Clostercamp and became marshal of France.

But why Unicorns? Because this animal is on Castries' blazon!

About the the author

Vinaigrette
I'm fond of strolls and History, with juicy and spicy details!