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The history of Libourne
Past and Present
From the Middle Ages to the Revolution, the town changed little, content to prosper from its trading activities. The second town in importance after Bordeaux, LIBOURNE was often its competitor or rival Libourne today is both an urban and rural community. The latter aspect is now less obvious than it was at the end of the 18th Century, when, once though the gates of the bastide, people found themselves in fields !
The town grew outside its walls and started to develop along the rivers : firstly with wine cellars and coopers' shops, then around them with the workers' houses known as "echoppes". This continuedwith the arrival of the railway in 1851, contributing to the reduction of the port activity and of river traffic.
Libourne became a major garrison town with the building of the LAMARQUE and PROTEAU barracks.
Having housed cavalry and infantry regiments, they became the army's health instruction centre in 1959, then in 1980 the army national school for reserve health officers. With the ending of military service, the school closed ; it has been replaced by a training school for the gendarmerie.
It was not untill the end of the 1950s that Libourne started to develop, the town being limited by the two rivers which border the city and by vineyards.
