Toulouse Plaque Tournante Des Pyrenés poster – A Farcey – c1950

Toulouse Plaque Tournante Des Pyrenés poster – A Farcey – c1950

Vintage Travel Poster: Toulouse Plaque Tournante Des Pyrenées poster

This Toulouse vintage travel poster claims Toulouse to be ‘The hub of the Pyranées’. The Toulouse poster depicts the now UNESCO-listed Basilica of Saint-Sernin. It is one of the most important and magnificent churches on the “Chemin Saint Jacques” medieval pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Built-in the 11th to 13th centuries, this impressive basilica ranks as the largest Romanesque church in Europe still in existence.

As the poster shows the church is built from the local pink coloured bricks that are a familiar sight in the buildings of Toulouse. They have earned Toulouse the nickname La Ville Rose or The Pink City. The church is dedicated to Saint Saturninus, the first bishop of Toulouse who was martyred in the year 250. Every year on the 29th of September, the Fête de Saint Saturnin is celebrated with a Mass at the saint’s tomb in the basilica and a procession of the saint’s relics. The Basilica’s six-story clock tower has an octagonal shape commonly found in churches of the Languedoc region.

Toulouse ‘The hub of the Pyranées’

The poster suggests Toulouse as a ‘hub’ and the region is promoted as an excellent base for a holiday. A region that proves easy access to a long list of names of tourist attractions and destinations that radiate around the six-story clock tower on the poster. The destinations include: the Pyranées, Lourdes, Gavarnie, Dordogne, Auvergne, Cévennes, George du Tarn, Montagne Noir, Cote Vermeille and more. Most of the destinations a between 2-3 hours away by car from Toulouse although a couple are five hours away, so not likely to be visited in a day. Possible. but not likely. Hopefully, the octagonal tower of the Saint-Sernin has been better constructed than the strangely shaped octagon on the poster!

Farcey’s Toulouse poster was created for the SNCF in the early 1950s.

Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears, or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints.

The 50x70cm version has been specially produced to be used in conjunction with Ikea’s 50x70cm Ribba picture frame which currently retails for around £15.