École des Beaux-Arts: The School of Fine Arts

The beautiful, opulent façade before you is that of Toulouse’s  School of Fine Arts. It was one of the first artistic establishments in the Occitania region. The school succeeded to the Royal Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, founded by Louis the 15th in 1750 and dissolved after the Revolution, like all royal academies in France. In 1804, the School relocated to the former Augustinian convent, later demolished for the construction of Metz Street. It was then that the school relocated to this beautiful building in front of you, formerly home to a Tobacco Factory. At the time, the factory was the city’s main employer. It was in fact the second-largest cigar producer in the country, after Paris, with over 2,000 women on payroll. Seeking to expand, the factory relocated in 1821 to a large purpose-built building, making way for our beautiful School of Fine Arts. You can take your time to admire its magnificent monumental façade, constructed in 1895. There are allegorical sculptures each personifying Engraving, Architecture, Painting and Sculpture. In 2011, the school merged with the Center for Advanced Studies in Music and Dance to create ISTAD, Toulouse’s higher institute of arts and design. Now that you know where future Toulousian artists are trained, let’s head a few meters further to the church of Notre-Dame de la Daurade.