Place · city

Tours

Also known as Caesarodunum, Civitas Turonorum

Tours is a city on the Loire in west-central France and the historic capital of Touraine. Founded by the Romans as Caesarodunum, the chief town of the Turones, it became a great pilgrimage centre after the death of its bishop Saint Martin in 397. Gregory of Tours wrote his histories there, Alcuin led its abbey school under Charlemagne, and in 732 Charles Martel defeated an Umayyad army between Tours and Poitiers.

Tours
Image: Jules78120 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 5 profiles

Carolingian EmpireFoundation, SummaryUmayyad CaliphateMilitary, SummaryAlemanniGovernance, DeclineKingdom of the FranksMilitary, Impact, SummaryLatinChange, Summary

Mentioned in 7 state histories

TuronesKingdom of the FranksKingdom of OrléansNeustriaEarly Duchy of AquitaineDuchy of the FranksCounty of Blois

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Tours. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/tours
MLA
“Tours.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/tours. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Tours.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/tours.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Tours’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/tours (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻