Known for the Battle of Tours in 732 AD, it is a National Sanctuary with connections to the Merovingians and the Carolingians, with the Capetians making the kingdom's currency the Livre tournois.

It was taken by Louis XI, as the royal capital under the Valois Kings with its Loire castles and city of art with the School of Tours.

The White and Blue city keeps a historical center registered in the UNESCO, and is home to the Vieux-Tours, a patrimonial site.

Tours is a popular culinary city with specialties such as: rillettes, rillons, Touraine vineyards, AOC Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine cheeses and nougats.

One important figure in the city was Saint Martin of Tours, a bishop who shared his coat with a naked beggar in Amiens.

The importance of Martin in the medieval Christian West made Tours, and its position on the route of pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, a major centre during the Middle Ages.

In the 9th century, Tours was at the heart of the Carolingian Renaissance, in particular because of Alcuin, of York in Northumbria, a renowned book collector and an abbot of Marmoutier Abbey.

In 732, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi and an army of Muslim horsemen from Al-Andalus advanced 500 kilometres (300 miles) deep into France, and were stopped at Moussais-la-Bataille[5] (between Châtellerault and Poitiers) by Charles Martel and his infantry.

The Renaissance gave Tours and Touraine many private mansions and castles, joined to some extent under the generic name of the Châteaux of the Loire.

Charles IX passed through the city at the time of his royal tour of France between 1564 and 1566, accompanied by the Court and various noblemen: his brother the Duke of Anjou, Henri de Navarre, the cardinals of Bourbon and Lorraine.

The importance of the city as a centre of communications contributed to its revival and, as the 20th century progressed, Tours became a dynamic conurbation, economically oriented towards the service sector.

The American presence is remembered today by the Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Loire, which was officially opened in July 1918 and bears the name of the President of the United States from 1913 to 1921.

Three American air force squadrons, including the 492nd, were based at the Parçay-Meslay airfield, their personnel playing an active part in the life of the city.

German incendiary bombs caused a huge fire, which blazed out of control from 20 to 22 June and destroyed part of the city centre.

More heavy air raids by Allied forces devastated the area around the railway station in 1944, causing several hundred deaths.

The recent history of Tours is marked by the personality of Jean Royer, who was mayor for 36 years and helped save the old town from demolition by establishing one of the first Conservation Areas.

In 1970, the François Rabelais University was founded and centred on the bank of the Loire in the downtown area, not, as was the current practice, in a campus in the suburbs.

Royer's long term as mayor was, however, not without controversy, as is exemplified by the construction of the practical but aesthetically unattractive motorway, which runs along the bed of a former canal just 1,500 metres (4,900 feet) from the cathedral.

That position is disputed by those in power, who affirm their policy of concentrating on the quality of life, as evidenced by urban restoration, the development of public transport and cultural activities.

Summers are influenced by its inland position, resulting in frequent days of 25 °C (77 °F) or warmer, whereas winters are kept mild by Atlantic air masses.

The lowermost stages of the western towers belong to the 12th century, but the rest of the west end is in the profusely detailed 15th-century Flamboyant Gothic, which were completed just as the Renaissance was affecting the patrons who planned the châteaux of Touraine.

A Council of Tours in 813 decided that priests should preach sermons in different languages because the common people could no longer understand classical Latin.

The Ordinance of Montils-lès-Tours, promulgated by Charles VII in 1454, made it mandatory to write laws and oral customs in the native language of the area.

Finally, the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts, signed into law by Francis I in 1539, called for the use of French in all legal acts, notarized contracts and official legislation to avoid any linguistic confusion.

[12] Today, with extensive rail (including TGV) and autoroute connections linking to the rest of the country, Tours is a jumping-off point for tourist visits to the Loire Valley and the royal châteaux.

[14] There is also a bus service, the main central stop being Jean Jaurès, next to the Hôtel de Ville, and rue Nationale, the high street of Tours.

CCSP's home stadium is the Stade des Tourettes and they play in the Division d'Honneur Regionale de Centre, the seventh tier of the French football league system.

[citation needed] Tours has served as the finish location for Paris–Tours, a one-day road cycling classic race held almost every October since 1896.

In 1843, Sister Marie of St Peter of Tours reported a vision which started the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus, in reparation for the many insults Christ suffered in His Passion.

Upon hearing of Sister Marie of St Peter's reported visions, he started to burn a vigil lamp continuously before a picture of the Holy Face of Jesus.